\\ 


'^          PRINCETON,  N.  J.          <3*         \ 

She{ 

BR  1700  .L59  v. 3 
Zeugen  der  Wahrheit. 
Lives  of  the  leaders  of  our 
church  universal 

1 

— . — . _ — _ . 

1 

LATER   LEADERS. 


AMERICA,   ASIA,   AFRICA,   AND   OCEANICA. 


LIVES 


THE  LEADEES 


OUR  CHURCH  UNIVERSAL, 


FROM  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  THE 
APOSTLES  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


THE  LIVES  BY  EUROPEAN  WRITERS  EROM  THE  GERMAN, 


AS  EDITED  BY 


DR.  FERDINAND   PIPER, 

PROFESSOK  OF  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY   OF   BERLIN. 


NOW  TRANSLATED  INTO  ENGLISH,  AND  EDITED,  WITH  ADDED 
LIVES  BY  AMERICAN  WRITERS, 


HENRY  MITCHELL  MACCRACKEN,  D.  D. 


BOSTON: 
CONGREGATIONAL   PUBLISHING  SOCIETY, 

Congregational  House,  Beacon  Street. 
1879. 


CopyTight,  1879, 
Br  H.  M.  MACCKACKEN. 


BIVERSIDE,   OAMBKIBGE  : 

8TBKE0TYPED    AND  PRINTED  BY 

H.  0.  HOUOnlON  AND  COMPANY. 


PHIITCSTO 

AUG  IbbU  f 

PEEFAOE.         *»**irT*^^i^ 


Some  three  years  since,  while  I  was  seeking  in  New  York  city  material 
for  a  volume  asked  of  me  by  a  "Western  publisher,  I  was  met  by  the  sug- 
gestion that  I  should  undertake  the  translation  into  English  and  the 
editing  of  the  lives  of  Christian  leaders  for  all  the  days  of  the  year,  re- 
cently published  in  Germany  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Ferdinand  Piper, 
of  the  University  of  Berlin. 

The  fact  that  the  suggestion  was  made  by  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs,  of 
Union  Seminary,  to  whom  the  work  had  been  transmitted  by  Dr.  Piper, 
with  a  view  to  its  publication  in  America,  and  that  both  he  and  Dr.  Philip 
SchaflF,  in  repeated  conversations,  recommended  it  to  me  as  deserving  a 
place  in  every  Christian  family,  inclined  me  to  take  up  the  task  suggested.. 
After  letters  had  been  exchanged  with  the  German  editor,  and  his  con- 
sent obtained  to  my  bringing  the  work  out  in  the  English  language,  with 
such  changes  as  might  seem  advantageous,  I  began  to  apply  myself,  as 
my  other  engagements  permitted,  to  the  labor  of  presenting  these  popular 
yet  scholarly  life-stories  of  Christian  witnesses  to  English  readers. 

The  task  thus  entered  upon  presented  two  parts.  First,  the  translating 
and  editing  of  the  lives  published  in  Germany.  Second,  the  adding  of 
the  life-stories  of  leaders  in  the  church  in  America,  and  in  certain  pagan 
lands,  passed  over  by  Dr.  Piper.  To  make  plain  what  I  have  done  under 
the  first  head,  I  will  state  briefly  the  origin,  scope,  and  form  of  the  work 
in  the  German. 

In  the  year  1850,  Dr.  Ferdinand  Piper  offered,  in  a  church-diet  at 
Stuttgard,  the  following  thesis :  "  The  whole  evangelical  church  in  Ger- 
man lands  is  interested  in  forming  a  common  roll  of  lives  for  all  the  days 
of  the  year,  to  be  settled  on  the  foundation  of  our  common  history,  and 
thus  to  be  made  a  bond  of  union  of  the  churches  in  all  the  countries." 

In  relation  to  the  thesis,  let  it  be  noted  that  the  Christians  of  Germany 


vi  PREFACE. 

did  not,  at  the  Eeformation,  cast  away  as  many  of  the  old  usages  as  did 
reformers  in  other  countries.  They  did  not  cast  away  organs ;  nor,  al- 
though they  uttei'ly  put  aside  prayers  to  saints,  did  they  abolish  the  con- 
nection of  the  names  of  Christian  worthies  of  past  ages  with  the  days  of 
the  year,  but  preserved  it  even  as  Americans  maintain  the  association  of 
the  name  of  Washington  with  February  22d.  The  forming  of  the  roll 
of  Christian  worthies  was  left,  however,  very  largely  to  accident.  Every 
little  German  land  made  its  own  calendar.  There  arose  great  diversity, 
and  often  names  were  inserted  upon  local  or  political  grounds.  Martin 
Luther's  was  the  only  name  universally  adopted  in  addition  to  the  men  of 
the  early  centuries.  Thus,  it  may  be  seen,  there  was  an  opportunity  and 
also  a  call  for  such  a  movement  as  that  suggested  in  Dr.  Piper's  thesis, 
which  should  present  German  Christians  a  new  roll  of  names  for  their 
almanacs,  and  also  a  new  book  of  lives  for  their  Christian  households, 
thus  stimulating  them  to  fulfill  the  precept,  "  Remember  them  who  have 
spoken  unto  you  the  Word  of  God." 

A  powerful  argument  for  giving  to  Germany  such  a  roll  of  lives  was 
the  necessity  of  meeting  Romanist  assertions  that  the  honored  fathers  and 
leaders  of  early  days  were  papists,  in  the  present  sense  of  the  term  papist, 
and  not  rather,  with  all  their  mistakes  and  superstitions,  evangelical  or 
TBible  Christians. 

The  chief  argument  for  the  book,  however,  was  that  next  to  God's 
Word,  Christians,  for  their  own  edification,  ought  to  know  (to  use  the 
words  of  Dr.  Piper)  "  the  doings  of  God  in  the  history  of  his  Church," 
and  "  the  manifestations  of  his  Spirit  in  the  witnesses  commissioned  and 
enlightened  by  Him  ever  since  the  day  of  Pentecost." 

These  and  like  considerations  impelled  Dr.  Piper  and  other  scholars  to 
give  to  the  German  church  the  "improved"  roll  of  names,  and  the  new 
book  of  lives  of  church  leaders.  Their  medium  for  this  was  at  first  a 
periodical  established  for  this  special  end  in  1850.  This  "Year  Book," 
as  it  was  called,  presented  new  and  correct  lives  of  the  leaders  from  the 
pens  of  able  and  eloquent  writers.  Dr.  Neander,  who  died  that  same 
year,  left  several  lives  for  the  book,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  present  vol- 
ume. The  array  of  authors,  as  the  table  of  contents  will  show,  includes 
many  of  the  most  celebrated  Christian  scholars  of  Germany  as  well  as 
some  of  France,  Britain,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  Scandinavia.  For 
twenty-one  successive  years  the  "  Year  Book  "  continued  the  presentation 
of  the  lives.     Finally,  the  roll  was  ended.     Dr.  Piper  then  edited  the 


PREFACE.  vii 

completed  biographies,  which  were  published  by  Tauchnitz  (1875).  The 
work  has  been  met  with  great  favor  by  the  church.  The  roll  of  names 
contained  in  it  has  been  officially  published  and  commended  by  the  Ger- 
man government. 

The  considerations  which  weigh  with  German  Christians  are,  perhaps, 
to  be  equally  regarded  by  men  of  English  tongue.  The  call  for  com- 
bating a  false  definition  of  the  Church  comes  to  us  also.  Bewildered  souls 
seeking  a  house  of  God  on  earth  are  too  often  guided  to  an  edifice  whose 
keys  are  kept  in  Rome  by  the  chief  of  an  ancient,  self-perpetuated  corpo- 
ration. Knowing  as  we  do  that  the  true  Church  has  been  seen  ever, 
where  any  body  of  men  has  risen,  "  a  pillar  and  a  stay  of  the  truth  "  (1 
Timothy  iii.  15,  marginal  reading),  ought  we  not  to  keep  this  visible 
form  of  all  the  centuries  before  men's  eyes,  and  pointing  to  it  say.  Here 
is  the  Church,  the  true  succession  of  "  John  and  XlJephas,  who  seemed  to 
be  pillars  "  in  every  circle  of  faithful  upholders  of  essential  Christianity  ? 

Do  we  omit  from  the  roll  of  church  pillars  since  the  Reformation  the 
Roman  Catholic,  the  Greek,  the  Copt,  and  the  Nestorian?  It  is  not 
that  we  would  deny  such  a  place  in  the  Church  Universal.  Like  the 
Ephesian  wonder  of  the  world  (which,  perhaps,  rose  before  the  mind  of 
him  who,  in  writing  to  his  friend  in  Ephesus,  gave  us  the  simile  just 
quoted),  and  like  its  forest  of  shafts,  each  a  pillar  and  a  stay  of  the  shel- 
tering roof  of  rock,  this  edifice,  the  Church  of  God,  incloses  uncounted 
varieties  of  pillars,  and  all  of  them  are  truly  parts  of  it  if  so  be  they  up- 
hold the  truth  of  the  living  God.  Yet  Greeks,  Romanists,  and  the  rest 
are  hardly  "  leading  "  supports  of  truth,  nowadays,  conti'asted  with  evan- 
gelical Christians.  Nor  will  they  become  so  till  they  are  cleansed  of 
the  moss  and  decay  of  the  centuries.  The  safe  rule  for  all  who  will  find 
the  Church  in  any  age  is.  Find  men  who  uphold  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,  and  who  gather  clustering  groups  of  columnar  Christians  around 
them,  supporting  the  same.     Here  is  the  Church,  beyond  controversy. 

But  the  main  object  of  our  German  brethren,  namely,  to  familiarize 
Christians  "  with  God's  doings  in  the  history  of  his  Church,"  is  the  chief 
end  for  us  also.  It  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  by  far  the  larger  half  of 
Christian  families  have  in  their  libraries  not  a  word  as  to  their  church  or 
its  leaders  from  the  end  of  the  Acts  to  the  annals  of  the  Reformation, 
unless  perhaps  in  some  such  caricature  of  Christianity  as  the  volumes  of 
Dr.  Gibbon.  This  ignorance  respecting  fifteen  Christian  centuries  is  not 
altogether  a  contented  ignorance.     This  I  have  proven  by  the  following 


Viii  PREFACE. 

experiment.  Setting  up  a  third  church  service  at  an  unusual  hour  upon 
the  Sabbath  afternoon,  in  which  besides  the  usual  devotions  was  offered 
a  brief  discourse  presenting  "  God's  doings  in  the  history  of  his  church,'' 
I  have  for  forty  successive  Sabbaths  in  a  year  seen  assembled  out  of  a 
new  and  busily  occupied  city  population  more  hearers  than  attend  upon 
the  average  service  of  Sabbath  evening.  Moreover  the  themes  presented 
were  received  with  marked  expressions  of  interest  from  Christians  of  vari- 
ous names,  and  even  from  those  not  Christians.  I  have  thus  been  led 
fully  into  Dr.  Piper's  view  that  the  edifying  of  the  Church  may  be  pro- 
moted by  ministers  speaking  from  time  to  time  to  their  people  of  "  the 
manifestations  of  God's  Spirit  in  witnesses  commissioned  and  enlightened 
by  Him  all  the  way  from  Pentecost."  Whatever  commendations  of  our 
Divine  cause  may  be  found  in  the  notable  lives  of  each  century  the  wise 
believer  will  not  neglect  to  offer,  especially  in  days  when  if  the  founda- 
tions be  not  destroyed  it  will  not  be  because  they  are  not  assailed  in  every 
mode  and  from  every  quarter. 

The  editor  does  not  present  in  his  English  work  all  the  lives  included 
in  the  German.  He  wished  to  keep  the  book  of  a  popular  size.  He 
considered,  too,  that  as  we  are  better  acquainted  with  the  Church  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Ajiostles  from  our  introduction  to  but  a  few  of  its  leaders, 
so  it  might  be  here.  There  have  been  omitted,  therefore,  first,  all  lives 
of  leaders  in  Bible  times,  a  large  company ;  second,  all  those  peculiarly 
local  or  German  ;  third,  other  lives  which,  hardly  less  interesting  or 
important  than  those  now  offered,  have  been  left  out  to  make  room  for 
lives  in  America,  Asia,  Africa,  and  Oceanica.  These  last  it  is  hoped  may 
one  day  be  called  for  by  readers,  and  along  with  them  others,  especially  of 
English,  Welsh,  and  Scotch  leaders,  in  recent  centuries,  which  many  will 
be  surprised  to  miss.  They  are  not  here  because  not  in  the  German. 
Should  the  call  arise,  the  editor  will  strive,  with  help  from  writers  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  to  present  the  Lives  of  the  Leaders  in  a 
second  series. 

The  life-stories  offered  are  in  every  instance  given  entire.  The  follow- 
ing changes  have,  however,  been  made  to  render  the  book  more  attractive. 
(1.)  For  the  numerous  divisions  of  time  in  the  German,  five  periods  have 
been  substituted  by  the  editor,  of  his  own  choosing.  (2.)  Portions  of  the 
lives  which  seemed  parenthetical  or  of  secondary  importance  have  been 
placed  in  footnotes.  (3.)  At  the  head  of  each  life  have  been  set  the  date 
of  the  birth  and  of  the  death  of  the  person  commemorated,  and  also  a 


PREFACE.  IX 

word  indicating  his  position  in  the  church,  clerical  or  lay,  or  his  denom- 
ination. 

The  title  of  the  book  I  have  translated  very  freely,  preferring  the  sec- 
ond word  by  which  Isaiah  describes  the  servant  of  God  to  the  first  word 
in  the  same  verse  (Isaiah  Iv.  5,  "  A  witness  ....  a  leader  ....  to 
the  people  "),  and  so  calling  the  work  the  Lives  of  the  Leaders  rather 
than  the  Lives  of  the  Witnesses,  the  last  word  being  somewhat  worn  in 
English  literature. 

For  the  cut-in  notes,  which  are  not  in  the  German,  I  alone  am  respon- 
sible. They  promise  aid  to  the  reader  as  well  as  add  attractiveness  to 
the  page. 

It  remains  to  say  something  concerning  the  second  part  of  my  task, 
the  adding  of  life-stories  of  leaders  in  America,  and  of  pioneers  in  other 
great  regions  passed  by  in  the  German,  namely,  Africa,  China,  and  Bur- 
mah. 

The  suggestion  that  in  adding  American  lives  I  should  regard  denom- 
inations was  given  me  by  Dr.  SchafF,  and  was  at  once  accepted.  To  es- 
tablish a  fair  and  good  rule  I  laid  down  the  following:  (1.)  In  every 
denomination  in  the  United  States  with  five  hundred  parishes  to  find  one 
"  leader."  In  every  denomination  with  over  three  thousand  parishes  to 
find  "  three  mighty  men,"  and  if  such  denomination  prevailed  in  colonial 
times,  to  add  to  the  three,  one,  two,  or  three  others.  (2.)  To  take  no 
account  of  the  division  of  denominations  into  northern  and  southern,  and 
yet  when  taking  three  mighty  men,  to  apportion  them  between  the  East, 
and  the  West  and  South.  These  rules  have  been  followed  strictly,  save 
that  the  Lutheran  body  is  given  but  one  leader  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
so  largely  rejiresented  in  the  German.^  The  Episcopal  Church  is  given 
but  one,  because  it  did  not  reach  three  thousand  parishes  in  the  statistics 

1  At  the  time  of  sending  the  last  manuscript  to  the  press,  I  found  myself  disappointed  in 
reference  to  an  expected  life-story  of  a  United  Presbyterian  leader.  To  supply  its  place  I 
prepared  the  story  of  Isabella  Graham.  After  this  had  been  stereotyped  came  unexpectedly, 
through  the  courtesy  of  the  United  Presb3'terian  Publication  House,  the  life  of  John  Tay- 
lor Pressly,  by  his  long-time  associate.  Rev.  Dr.  David  R.  Kerr,  a- theologian  whose  labors 
in  church  history  have  received  a  recent  recognition  in  his  election  to  preside  over  the 
Historical  Section  of  the  First  General  Presbyterian  Council  in  Edinburgh,  1877. 

This  life  I  gladly  added,  as  supplying  what  was  lacking.  Further,  it  was  proposed  by 
the  secretary  of  the  house  named,  that  Isabella  Graham  be  inserted  as  a  representative  of 
the  Associate  Reformed  body,  now  merged  in  the  United  Presbyterian.  At  risk  of  seem- 
ing to  transgress  my  rule,  I  therefore  retain  this  storj',  moved  to  its  retention  in  part  by  a 
desire  to  recognize  woman  leadership  in  the  Church  in  America,  as  the  present  work  recog- 
nizes it  in  the  other  hemisphere. 


X  PREFACE. 

of  1877,  though  now  it  reports  more  than  that  number.  Four  denom- 
inations are  each  given  three  or  more  leaders,  while  ten  have  each  one 
leader.  These  fourteen  bodies  include,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  Table  of 
Statistics  (Appendix  III.),  forty-nine  fiftieths  of  the  evangelical  church 
in  the  United  States. 

In  choosing  American  leaders  I  have  followed  less  my  own  judgment 
than  that  of  eminent  men  in  the  respective  denominations,  having  had 
correspondence  upon  the  subject  with,  perhaps,  fifty  distinguished  schol- 
ars, exclusive  of  the  many  who  appear  as  writers. 

In  choosing  a  leader  in  China  and  other  lands  I  have  in  like  manner 
sought  competent  tribunals  of  opinion.  To  the  many  eminent  men  who 
have  lent  me  aid  in  this,  I  here  express  my  very  great  obligations. 

And  now  in  closing  what  has  been  these  three  years  a  labor  of  love  and 
a  recreation  from  other  toils,  I  find  an  especial  source  of  pleasure  in  the 
thought  that  this  book  may  prove  a  new  bond  of  love  in  the  church  in 
America,  the  more  from  the  fact  that  it  will  go  out  bearing  the  imprints, 
each  on  a  distinct  edition,  of  a  large  portion  of  the  denominational  pub- 
lication houses  of  this  continent.  In  agreeing  to  take  a  part  in  its 
simultaneous  issue,  each  of  these  houses  courteously  introduces  to  its 
own  communion  the  leaders  of  other  churches  not  as  "strangers  and 
foreigners,"  but  as  dear  brethren.  "  Such  a  work  "  (I  quote  the  words 
of  the  venerable  Dr.  Whedon,  in  his  letter  to  the  Methodist  house  ap- 
proving of  the  plan  of  this  book)  "will  be  a  symbol  of  the  Church's 

true  spiritual  unity." 

H.  M.  M. 

Orange  Place  Study,  Toledo,  Ohio,  1879. 


-^OPEflf?^ 

PHniCETOLI 
CONTEf  TS.iiEC.  AUG  1860 

THEOLOGIC.V.L 


LATER   LEADERS.  — AMERICA,   ASll^'Af^A, 
AND    OCEANICA. 


PERIOD   FIFTH.      THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS. 

CENTUEIES  XVII. -XIX. 

Amer'ica.  —  Colonial  Period. 

Life  I.     William  Brewster,  Congregational. 

Pagb 
His  English  Home.  —  Who  the  Puritans  were.  —  The  Church  in  Brewster's 
House.  —  Brewster    in     Holland.  —  The     Mayflower.  —  Brewster's     Great 

Work 541 

By  Dr.  Hopkins,  of  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

Life  II.     Jonathan  Edwards,   Congregational. 

Colonial   Disadvantages.  —  Edwards's  Parents.  —  His  Religious  Development. 

—  Begins    to  Preach.  —  Marries   Sarah   Pierrepont.  —  His  Noted   Sermons. 

—  His  Adversities.  —  Displaced  from  Northampton.  —  His  Great  Books .         .  547 

By  Dr.  Humphreys,  of  Cincinnati. 

Life  III.     Samuel  Hopkins,  Congregational. 

Early  Life.  —  Title  to  Fame. — Antislavery  Books. — Projects  Liberia.  —  Leads 

in  Foreign  Missions.  —  Hopkinsian  Theology 557 

By  Dr.  Hopkins,  of  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

Life  IV.     Francis  Makemie,  Presbyterian. 

Reaches  America.  —  Labors  for  Religious  Liberty.  —  In  Prison  in  New  York 

City.  —  His  Eight  to  Fame 565 

By  Dr.  Blackburn,  of  Chicago. 

Life  V.    Jonathan  Dickinson,  Presbyterian. 

A  New  Englander.  —  His  "Five  Points"  of  Calvinism. — Father  of  the  College 

of  New  Jersey.  —  Leader  of  Union .  569 

By  Dr.  Blackburn,  of  Chicago. 


xn  CONTENTS. 


Life  VI.     John  Witherspoon,  Presbyterian. 

Descended    from  John  Knox.  —  At   Thirty-one  stirs   Scotland.  —  Chosen   by 
Princeton.  —  Zeal  for  Independence.  —  Work  in  Congress.  —  Opens  First 

General  Assembly 574 

By  Dr.  Blackburn,  of  Chicago. 


Life  VII.    Henry  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  Lutheran. 

First   Lutherans    in  America.  —  Muhlenberg    guided.  —  Reaches  America.  — 
His  Picture  of  the  Country.  —  Paul-like  Activity.  —  Catholicity  of  Spirit.  — 

Presides  over  First  Conference.  —  A  Patriotic  Old  Man 584 

By  Professor  Prince,  of  Sj^ringfield,  0 

Life  VIII.    Michael  Schlatter,  German  Reformed. 

The  Home  of  the  German  Reformed.  —  Their  Children  in  America.  —  Schlat- 
ter's Early  Life.  —  Lands  in  the  New  World.  —  The  First  Synod.  —  In  Europe 
for  America's  Sake.  —  His  Labors.  —  His  Death  at  "Sweetland"         .         .  590 
,  By  Dr.  Good,  of  Tiffin,  0. 


Life  IX.    Philip  William  Otterbein,  United  Brethren. 

Early   Life   in   Germany.  —  Call  to   America.  —  Awakened   in   Spirit.  —  The 
Name  "United  Brethren." — Remains  in  the  Reformed  Church.  —  The  New 

Denomina,tion.  —  His  Memorial  Sermon  by  Asbury 599 

By  Bishop  Weaver,  of  Dayton,  O. 

Life  X.    James  Manning,  Baptist. 

His  Predecessor,   Roger  Williams.  —  Baptist  Progress.  —  Manning  a  Leader. 
—  He  founds  Rhode  Island  College,  now  Brown  University.  —  His  Work  in 

Providence. — Personal  Gifts.  —  Patriotism 608 

By  Dr.  S.  L.  Caldavell,  of  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

America.  —  National  Period. 

Life  XI.     Francis  Asburt,  Methodist  Episcopal. 

Sufferings  as  a  School-Boy.  —  Enters  upon  Religious  Life.  —  Chosen  by  Wesley 
for  America.  —  Reaches  Philadelphia.  —  Hardships  during  the  Revolutionary 

War. — Becomes  Bishop.  —  Abundant  Labors 614 

By  Dr.  Webster,  of  Newbury,  Canada. 


Life  XII.    William  MacKendree,  Methodist  Episcopal. 

Methodism  in  the  South  and  the  West. — Its  Standard-Bearer. — A  Soldier  in 
the  Revolution.  —  Lives  in  the  Saddle.  —  Exciting  Episodes.  —  Made  Bishop. 
—  "All's  Well" — Solemn  Reinterment  in  Centennial  Year   ....  623 

By  Dr.  Summers,  of  Nashville,  Teun. 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

Life  XIII.    Wilbur  Fisk,  Methodist  Episcopal. 

Parentage  and  Early  Training.  —  Itinerant  Life.  —  His  Great  Work  as  an  Edu- 
cator. —  President  of  Wesleyan  University.  —  Anxiety  for  a  Trained  Minis- 
try.—  Zeal  for  Missions.  —  Declines  the  Episcopate. — Closing  Scenes  .  632 

By  Dr.  Bennett,  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Life  XIV.    John  Henrt  Livingston,  Dutch  Reformed. 

Dutch  and  Scotch.  —  Studies  in  Holland.  —  In  New  York  City.  —  Unites  the 
Dutch  Reformed.  —  In  the  War.  —  Professor  of  Theology.  —  Father  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Constitution.  —  Portrait  of  the  Man,  of  the  Preacher  and 

Professor 639 

By  Dr.  Clark,  of  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Life  XV.    William  White,  Episcopalian. 

Seeks  Ordination  abroad.  —  Returns  to  America.  —  A  Patriot.  —  Father  of  the 
American  Episcopate. — Views  of   Doctrine   and  Order.  —  Catholicity.  —  la 

sung  by  Wordsworth 647 

By  Bishop  Stevens,  of  Philadelphia. 

Life  XVI.     Jacob  Albright,  Evangelical  Association. 

Early  Business  Career.  —  Called  to  his  Life- Work.  —  Compassion  for  the  Scat- 
tered Germans.  —  Organizes  the  Evangelical  Association.  —  Albright's  Ideal 

of  a  Bishop.  —  His  Personal  Appearance 657 

By  Bishop  Yeakel,  of  Naperville,  HI. 

Life  XVIL     Robert  Donnell,  Cumberland  Presbyterian. 

The  Great  Revival  in  the  Southwest. — In  School  Nine  Months.  —  Leader  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church.  —  Founder  of  noted  Churches  and  of  Col- 
leges. —  His  Last  Sermons 661 

By  Dr.  Beard,  of  Lebanon,  Perm. 

Life  XVIII.    Alexander  Campbell,  Disciples  of  Christ. 

Studies  in  Scotland.  —  Foimds  the  Church  of  the  Disciples.  —  His  Account  of 
his  Belief.  —  His  Books  and  Great  Debates.  —  His  College. —  His  Private 

Life 668 

By  Dr.  Pendleton,  of  Bethany,  W."  Va. 

Life  XIX.    John  Mason  Peck,  Baptist. 

Early  Difficulties.  —  An  Apostle  of  the  West.  —  In  St.  Louis, — Father  of  the 
Home  Mission  Society.  —  Founds  the  first  Religious  Newspaper  by  the  Mis- 
sissippi. —  His  Books.  —  His  Blessed  Death 677 

By  Dr.  Pendleton,  of  Upland,  Pa. 

Life  XX.    Francis  Watland,  Baptist. 

An  Era  in  his  Life. — A  Pastor  in  Boston.  —  In  Providence. — Leader  of  Col- 
lege Reform.  —  His  Publications.  —  A  Model  Pastor.  —  Faithful  to  the  End. 

—  Oration  upon  Lincoln's  Assassination 686 

By  Dr.  Lincoln,  of  Newton  Centre,  Mass. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Life  XXI.     Richard  Fulleh,  Baptist. 

Converted  under  Daniel  Baker.  — Finds  his  Life-Field  in  Baltimore.  —  His  Per- 
sonal Appearance.  —  As  a  Preacher 697 

By  Dr.  Jeter,  of  Richmond,  Va. 

Life  XXII.     Timothy  Dwight,  Congregational. 

Grandson  of  Edwards.  —  Twelve  Years  a  Pastor.  —  President  of  Yale.  — 
Makes   of  the  College  a  University.  —  Championship  of  the  Faith.  —  His 

Theology.  —  Personal  Gifts 704 

By  Dr.  Dwight,  of  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Life  XXIII.     Lyman  Beecher,  Congregational. 

In  Connecticut.  —  His  Theology.  —  Leads  the  Temperance  Reform.  —  Opposes 
Unit:u•iani^m.  —  Removes    to   Cincinnati.  —  A   Leader  of  the  Antislavery 

Cause.  —  In  the  Presbyterian  Schism. — Dying  Vision 711 

By  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  of  Hartford,  Conn. 

Life  XXIV.     Charles  Finney,  Congregational. 

Buys  his  First  Bihle.  —  Begins  to  Preach. — A  Whole  Community  Converted. 

—  Work  in  Philadelphia.  —  In  Rochester.  —  "  The  Evangelist."  —  His  Work 

in  England.  —  President  of  Oberlin.  —  His  Theology 730 

By  Mrs.  Helen  Finney  Cox,  of  Cincinnati. 

Life  XXV.     Isabella  Graham,  Associate  Reformed. 

Covenanters  and  Seceders.  —  Their  Characteristics.  —  Sees  New  York  City  for 
the  First  Time.  —  Finds  Friends  in  the  West  Indies.  —  Vicissitudes  in  Scotland. 

—  Welcome  to  New  York  City.  —  Great  Work  as  a  Teacher.  —  Her  Interest  in 

a  Tlieological  Seminary.  —  A  Leader  in  Missions.  —  Her  Patriotism       .         .  740 

By  Dr.  MacCracken,  of  Toledo,  0. 

Life  XXVI.    Archibald  Alexander,  Presbyterian. 

By  Birth  a  Virginian.  —  His  Conversion.  —  The  Great  Revival.  —  A  Mission- 
ary.—  At  Hampden  Sidney. —  The  Father  of  Pi-inceton  Theological  Semi- 
nary. —  A  Peacemaker 749 

By  Dr.  Alexander,  of  Hampden  Sidney,  Va. 

Life  XXVII.     Charles  Hodge,  Presbyterian. 

His  Mother.  —  Studies  in  Germany.  —  Founds  the  "  Princeton  Review." — As 
a  Controversialist.  —  As  a  Teacher.  —  His  Books.  —  Trains  Three  Thousand 

Clergymen.  —  His  Motto  for  Princeton 760 

By  Dr.  Hodge,  of  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Life  XXVIII.     Albert  Barnes,  Presbyterian. 

His  Birth. —  His  Conversion. — Objects  of  his  Enthusiasm. —  Temperance. — 
Antislavery.  —  Sabbath-Schools.  —  Theology.  —  His  Great  Work  through 

his  Commentaries. — Fidelity  to  Truth 767 

By  Dr.  Johnson,  of  Auburn,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Life  XXIX.    Thomas  Hewlings  Stockton,  Methodist  Protestant. 

His  Father.  —  Forming  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  —  His  Labors  in 
East  and  West.  —  His  Characteristics.  —  Marked  Features  of  his  Denomina- 
tion       773 

By  Dk.  Webster,  of  Baltimore. 

Life  XXX.    John  Taylor  Pkesslt,  United  Presbyterian 

The  United  Presbyterian  Communion.  —  His  Family.  —  In  the  South.  —  In 
Western    Pennsylvania.  —  As    a    Pastor.  —  Personal    Appearance.  —  As    a 

Preacher.  —  As  a  Teacher ' 778 

By  Dr.  Kerr,  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Mission  Lands.  —  Greenland. 

Life  XXXI.    John  Egede,  Lutheran. 

His  Family.  —  Ten  Years'  Waiting.  —  An  Esquimau  to  the  Esquimaux.  —  His 

Wife  Gertrude.  —  His  Son  Paul 783 

By  Dr.  Kalkar,  of  Copenhagen,  Denmark. 

Indians  of  North  America. 
Life  XXXII.    David  Zeisberger,  Moravian. 

A  Eunaway  Boy.  —  By  Lake  Oneida.  —  By  the  Ohio.  —  Near  Lake  Erie.  —  In 

Michigan.  —  Closing  Days  in  Eastern  Ohio 788 

By  Dr.  Frommann,  of  Petersburg,  Germany. 

India. 

Life  XXXIII.     Christian  Frederic  Schwartz,  Lutheran. 

India  Missions.  —  At  Halle.  —  Leader  of  Christianity  in  India.  —  In  Tanjore.  — 

Dies  while  Singing 796 

By  Dr.  von  Merz,  of  Stuttgart,  Germany. 

Africa. 
Life  XXXIV.    John  Theodosius  Vanderkemp,  Reformed. 

An  Army  Officer.  —  Called  at  Fifty.  — Lands  at  the  Cape.  —  Meets  the  King  of 
Caffres.  —  Hunts  Elephants.  —  Founds  Bethelsdorp.  —  Deliverer  of  the  Op- 
pressed         803 

By  Dr.  Grout,  of  Brattleboro',  Vt. 

Persia. 

Life  XXXV.     Henry  Martyn,  Episcopalian. 

In  Madras  and  Calcutta.  —  In  Persia.  —  The  Per.'^ian   Bible.  —  The  Shah   is 

given  his  Bible.  —  Lonely  Death  at  Tokat 814 

By  Dr.  von  Merz,  of  Stuttgart,  Germany. 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

China. 

Life  XXXVL    Robert  Morrison,  United  Presbyterian. 

Leader  of  the  Church  in  China.  —  Lands  in  China  as  an  American.  —  With 
the  East  Lidia  Company.  —  Baptizes  tlie  First  Convert.  —  Completes  the  Chi- 
nese Bible.  —  Reception  in  England.  —  Last  Prayers 819 

By  Dr.  Williams,  of  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Burmah. 

Life  XXXVII.    Adoniram  Judson,  Baptist. 

The  Founding  of  the  American  Board.  —  Judson  in  Burmah.  —  First  Convert. 
—  In  Prison  in  Ava.  —  Nobly  seconded  by  his  Wife.  —  Completes  the  Bur- 
mese Bible.  —  Home  after  Thirty-three  Years.  —  The  second  and  the  third 

Mrs.  Judson •         .837 

•By  Mrs.  Helen  Kendrick,  of  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Oceanica. 

Life  XXXVIIL    John  Williams,  Congregational. 

An  Excellent  Mechanic.  —  His  Quiet  Church  Training.  —  Sails  for  the  South 
Seas.  —  His  Broad  Plan,  —  His  Father's  Message.  —  His  Martyrdom       .         .  849 

By  Dk.  Ahlfeld,  of  Leipzig,  Germany. 


THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS 

IN  AMERICA,  ASIA,  AFRICA,  AND  OCEANICA. 

PERIOD  FIFTH.  COMPRISING  CENTURIES  XVII.-XIX.  (OR  FROM  THE  END 
OF  THE  REFORMATION  ERA  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME).  DIVISIONS  OF 
THE  PERIOD  :  CENTURIES  XVII.,  XVIII.,  THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED 
PROGRESS  THROUGH  EXTENDED  INSTRUCTION  IN  DOCTRINE  AND 
THROUGH  THE  BUILDING  UP  OF  DENOMINATIONS ;  CENTURY  XIX., 
THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS  THROUGH  ENLARGED  EFFORT 
IN  MISSIONS,  CHARITIES,  SCHOOLS,  SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  RE- 
FORMS, AND  EVANGELICAL  UNIONS. 

LIFE  I.     WILLIAM  BREWSTER. 

A.    D.    1574-A.    D.    1644.       CONGREGATIONAL,  —  AMERICA. 

It  is  an  old  popular  error  in  America  that,  while  the  first  settlers  in 
Virginia  were  persons  of  rather  high  social  standing  and  culture,  the 
New  England  colonists  were  somewhat  low  and  underbred  people.  They 
have  been  described  as  sincere  and  pious  in  then-  way,  but  as  belonging 
to  the  humbler  class  in  society.  The  gentlemen  colonists  found  homes 
in  Virginia,  with  broader  and  more  generous  aspects  of  nature  aroimd 
them,  suited  to  their  finer  natures  ;  the  bleak  and  narrow  coast  of  Mas- 
sachusetts received  a  comparatively  poor  and  uncultured  immigration. 

The  point  would  scarce  be  worth  discussing,  even  if  it  were  well  taken. 
But  opposite  to  this,  the  fact  is  that  while  the  Plymouth  colonists  had 
what  was  far  more  valuable,  and  what  the  Southern  planters  too  often 
lacked,  namely,  high  principle,  martyr  heroism,  and  the  fear  of  God, 
they  were  by  no  means  lacking  in  the  external  advantages  of  good  birth 
and  liberal  culture.     As  for  Miles  Standish,  we  know  that 

"  He  was  a  gentleman  born,  could  trace  his  pedigree  plainly 
Back  to  Hugh  Standish  of  Duxbury  Hall,  in  Lancashire,  England, 
Who  was  the  son  of  Ralph,  and  the  grandson  of  Thurston  de  Standish." 

Another  of  the  Mayflower's  crew  was  Stephen  Hopkins,  who  brought 
over  with  him  two  "  servants,"  and  who  set  the  "  gentlemanly  "  exam- 
ple of  fighting  the  first  duel  on  record  in  America.  Isaac  Johnson, 
of  the  Salem  colony,  was  husband  of  "  the  Lady  Arabella,"  daughter 
of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln.     Not  to  mention  other  cases,  the  subject  of  the 


542  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

present  sketch,  William  Brewster,  the  "  Elder  of  Plymouth,"  was  by  birth 
„.        ,.  ^         and  education  a  gentleman.     The  old  manor-house  where  he 

His  English  o  .  .        -n, 

home.  spent  his  early  days,  at  Scrooby,  on  the  Lincolnshire  Flat, 

was  a  stately  mansion  in  its  time,  and  not  unfrequently  received  dis- 
tino-uished  visitors.  It  stood  near  the  high  road  from  London  to  York  ; 
royal  personages  had  rested  there  for  a  night  on  their  journey,  and  Car- 
dinal Wolsey,  when  dismissed,  under  the  displeasure  of  the  king,  to  his 
own  diocese  in  the  north,  lingered  some  weeks  at  the  manor  of  Scrooby. 
The  father  of  William  Brewster  held  some  post  under  the  queen's  gov- 
ernment, and  lived  in  easy  circumstances ;  and  the  son  was  sent  at  so 
early  an  age  to  pursue  his  studies  at  Cambridge  that  (1584)  in  his 
twenty-first  year  we  find  him  already  entered  upon  active  life  and  a 
public  career  in  London.  He  was  employed  by  William  Davidson,  "  the 
excellent  and  unlucky  secretary  "  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  accompanied 
him  on  a  mission  to  the  Netherlands  at  the  time  the  queen  was  tanta- 
lizing the  suffering  province  with  her  ungracious  and  grvidging  assistance. 

Brewster,  while  at  the  university,  had  entered  on  that  experience  of 
religion  which  was  the  element  in  which  his  whole  remaining  life  moved ; 
and  it  was  probably  not  more  the  evidence  of  marked  talent  than  of 
early  piety  that  led  the  devout  Davidson  to  select  him  for  his  confiden- 
tial private  secretary.  The  official  career  of  both  was  terminated  in  an 
abrupt  and,  as  to  the  queen,  most  disgracefully  characteristic  manner. 
Anxious  to  get  rid  of  her  chronic  terror,  the  Queen  of  Scots,  and  failing 
to  procure  her  taking  off  by  secret  assassination,  Elizabeth  at  length 
ordered  secretary  Davidson  to  bring  her  the  death-warrant,  which  had 
been  for  some  time  ready,  and  with  a .  jesting  remark  on  her  lips  aflSxed 
her  signature.  The  council,  who  thought  the  death  of  Mary  Stuart  nec- 
essary to  the  safety  of  the  realm,  persuaded  Davidson  to  send  ofi"  the 
warrant  at  once,  promising  to  stand  between  him  and  all  harm. 

When  the  object  on  which  Elizabeth's  heart  had  been  so  long  set  was 
accomplished,  and  her  fears  laid  to  rest  by  the  axe  of  the  executioner, 
she  flew  into  one  of  her  artificial  paroxysms  of  grief :  raved  and  wept ; 
disavowed  the  act  she  had  ordered ;  threw  Davidson  into  prison  and  ru- 
ined him  with  a  crushing  fine  of  ten  thousand  pounds.  Brewster  re- 
turned to  his  home  in  the  north,  where  he  found  himself  in  the  midst  of 
congenial  associations. 

Whether  arising  from  the  relation  of  physical  conditions  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  religious  sentiment,  if  it  be  possible  that  such  exists, 
or  from  personal  and  historic  influences  alone,  it  is  at  all  events  true 
that  there  have  often  been  associated  with  certain  localities  peculiar 
tendencies  in  religion.  The  Puritanical  sentiment  in  England  had  gath- 
ered itself  around  three  or  four  central  points.  It  had  little  footing 
in. either  the  extreme  north  or  the  extreme  south.  Outside  the  great 
city  of  London  it  had  found  acceptance  chiefly  in  the  midland  counties. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        WILLIAM  BREWSTER.  543 

Its  strength  lay  in  the  heart  of  the  kingdom,  between  the  Humber  and 
the  Thames ;  among  a  people  of  more  unmixed  Anglo-Saxon  race  than 
was  found  in  the  coast  shires,  and  speaking  the  English  language  with 
far  greater  purity  than  the  Kentish  of  Devon  men  on  the  Channel,  or 
the  Cumbrian  and  Yorkshire  boors  on  the  border.  It  was  in  Scrooby 
and  the  neighboring  towns  of  Lancashire  that  the  Puritan  movement 
found  its  most  vigorous  impulse.  Here  was  the  cradle  of  that  infant 
emigration  which  was  cast  out  to  perish  in  the  wild  North  Sea,  and  then 
gained  strength  to  seek,  of  itself,  a  home  beyond  the  still  wilder  At- 
lantic. 

Let  us  understand  who  these  Puritans  were ;  for  they  are  often  mis- 
understood. They  were  Protestants  of  the  intensest  type  ;  -^/^^  ^;^^^  p^j. 
Calvinists  in  faith,  Presbyterians  in  principle,  but  devout  **°^  ^®'^^- 
and  loving  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  Brownism  —  separation 
from  the  church  of  their  fathers  —  they  abhorred,  both  name  and  thing. 
But  they  desired  a  perfected  reformation,  as  many  of  the  best  members 
of  the  Anglican  Church  had  done.  They  wanted  a  reasonable  liberty  in 
the  use  of  indifferent  things  in  worship,  a  relief  for  tender  or  perhaps 
morbid  consciences  in  the  matter  of  rings  and  robes  and  crosses.  Could 
they  but  have  had  even  moderate  indulgence  they  would  have  wished  to 
draw  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word  from  no  other  breasts  than  hers. 
They  waited  upon  her  altars  on  Sundays  and  festivals.  But  they  asked 
the  small  privilege  —  small  it  might  seem  in  itself,  but  precious  to  them 
—  of  meeting  by  themselves,  from  time  to  time,  for  the  study  of  the 
Word  and  the  worship  of  God  in  their  own  bare  Puritanical  fashion. 

But  this  was  more  than  Archbishop  Whitgift  and  his  like-minded 
clergy  could  allow  them ;  they  were  watched,  informed  against,  dogged 
by  pursuivants,  dragged  before  justices,  fined,  and  thrown  into  prison  for 
the  crime  of  presuming  to  be  more  pious  than  their  betters. 

The  first  rendezvous  and  meeting-house  of  these  "  Protestant  non- 
conformists "  was  the  manor-house  at  Scrooby,  whose  spa- 

.  .  \         The  church  in 

cious  chambers  gave  them  for  a  time  sufficient  accommoda-  Brewster's 
tion.  But  new  brethren  flocked  in,  and  they  outgrew  the 
dimensions  of  a  single  house.  They  were  forced  to  colonize ;  a  portion 
of  them  formed  a  second  congregation  at  the  neighboring  town  of  Gains- 
boro'.  Persecution  had  gradually  opened  their  eyes,  while  it  thrust  them 
further  and  further  out  towards  the  border  line  of  the  establishment. 
At  length  they  were  driven  across  into  actual  separation ;  they  organized 
churches  of  their  own ;  elected  their  own  officers,  plain  elders  and  dea- 
cons of  the  Scriptural  type ;  and  administered  the  ordinances  with  apos- 
tolic simplicity.  Against  their  will  they  renounced  the  national  church, 
and  from  Puritans  became  Brownists.  Of  the  Scrooby  church,  William 
Brewster  was  made  ruling  elder,  and  —  another  name  equally  sacred  to 
the  history  of  religious  liberty  —  John  Robinson  became  teacher. 


644  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

By  the  year  1607,  the  bishops  had  made  it  so  warm  for  them  that 
they  reconciled  their  minds  to  the  sad  alternative  of  exile.  England 
was  dear,  but  freedom  to  worshijj  God  was  dearer ;  they  looked  about 
for  an  asylum.  Just  across  the  German  Ocean,  two  days'  sail  or  less 
distant,  struggling  for  existence  against  nature  and  against  man,  lay  the 
little  confederation  of  Belgic  provinces.  Distracted  by  political  and  re- 
ligious jealousies,  cursed  with  an  intolerant  state-church  establishment, 
and  still  facing,  half  in  terror,  half  in  fury,  with  sword  unsheathed,  the 
relentless  and  deadly  hatred  of  Spain,  the  seven  provinces  offered  the 
Brewster  in  Hoi-  ^^^^  P^^^  ^^  ^^®  storm  of  religious  persecution  that  beat 
^'^^^-  upon  the  Puritans  in  their  native  land.     With  great  diffi- 

culty and  suffering  two  ship-loads  of  them  made  their  escape  and  landed 
at,  Amsterdam ;  not  long  after  they  removed  to  Leyden. 

It  was  an  hour  of  great  convulsions  and  great  struggles  in  Europe. 
The  twelve  years'  truce  between  Spain  and  her  revolted  provinces  had  just 
been  signed ;  and  the  Netherlands  were  at  this  moment  in  the  still  cen- 
tre of  the  cyclone,  which  was  rapidly  moving  eastward  to  burst  with  such 
awful  fury  upon  Germany.  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  their  cool  and 
selfish  friend,  had  still  three  years  more  of  broad  political  scheming  and 
disgraceful  private  pleasures,  before  the  dagger  of  Francis  Ravaillac 
should  reach  his  heart.  The  Thirty  Years'  War,  the  last  frantic  attempt 
of  the  Romish  powers  to  smother  Protestantism  in  blood  and  ashes,  was 
ready  to  break  out ;  ai^d  "  all  Germany  stood  with  hand  on  sword,  fright- 
ened at  the  shaking  of  every  leaf."  Maurice  of  Nassau,  with  still  and 
obstinate  determination,  was  nursing  his  own  plans  of  ambition  or  re- 
venge. The  bitter  Arminian  controversy  was  convulsing  the  Dutch 
churches.  In  the  midst  of  the  hurly-burly,  this  little  colony  of  English 
exiles  settled  down  almost  unnoticed  in  the  ancient  city  of  Leyden.  The 
snarling  polemics  who  were  battling  for  sublapsarian  or  supralapsarian 
Calvinism,  the  ambitious  princes  bent  on  their  own  private  ends,  even 
the  wise  and  far-seeing  statesmen  of  the  day,  might  be  excused  for  not 
perceiying  that  this  feeble  plant  embodied  the  germs  of  a  far  mightier 
and  more  eventful  revolution  than  any  with  which  state  or  church  had 
ever  yet  been  called  to  grapple.  They  came  with  naked  hands  ;  having 
saved  scarce  anything  from  the  harpy  talons  of  the  bishojis'  jiursuivants. 
But  they  had  among  them  education,  professional  knowledge,  mechanical 
skill,  and  a  thrift  and  industry  that  knew  how  to  make  a  little  go  a  great 
way.  They  betook  themselves  to  their  various  possibilities.  Brewster's 
university  education  now  served  him  well  as  a  means  of  earning,  bread 
for  his  eight  children.  He  taught  school ;  he  published  a  Latin  grammar 
and  other  books.  He  set  up  a  printing  office  and  sent  out  various  works, 
polemical  and  practical.  Some  of  them  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
crowned  pedant  who  was  making  England  contemptible  and  ridiculous  in 
the  eyes  of  Europe ;  and  orders  were  sent  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton  to 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]      WILLIAM  BREWSTER.  545 

effect  his  arrest  and  surrender  for  suitable  punishment.  Various  things 
concurred  to  make  the  colonists  uneasy  in  Holland  ;  they  had  been  twelve 
years  there  as  exiles  and  strangers.  At  length  they  made  up  their  minds 
to  seek  a  home  in  the  New  World,  where  meddling  despotism  and  usurping 
church  authorities  could  not  reach  them.  Companies  had  already  been 
formed  in  England  for  the  promotion  of  settlements  in  Virginia.  The 
James  River  colony  was  still  struggling  with  its  early  disasters.  The 
Virginia  company  laid  claim  to  all  the  coast  from  the  Spanish  possessions 
in  Florida  to  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson.  Another  company,  formed  at 
Plymouth,  in  the  county  of  Devon,  procured  a  charter  for  the  district 
lying  north  of  the  forty-first  parallel,  which  Captain  John  Smith  had  in 
1614  baptized  "  New  England." 

At  length,  after  much  unsatisfactory  negotiation  with  the  jealous  and 
grasping  "  merchant  adventurers,"  the  Mayflower  put  out 
to  sea  from  Plymouth  harbor,  and,  passing  Land's  End,  be- 
gan forcing  her  way  against  the  strong  western  gales  across  the  Atlantic 
She  started  with  one  hundred  passengers ;  and  on  the  21st  of  November, 
1620  (one  death  and  one  birth  having  occurred  on  the  voyage),  she 
dropped  her  anchor  in  the  sheltered  hook  of  Provincetown  harbor. 

A  month  later  the  exhausted  and  half  starved  colonists  landed  in  a- 
body  on  the  wild  and  wintry  solitude  of  Plymouth. 

It  was  while  coasting  along  the  low  shores  of  Cape  Cod,  and  in  the 
immediate  prospect  of  setting  up  as  a  "  civil  body  politic  "  by  themselves, 
that  this  little  company  of  tempest-tost  exiles,  in  the  cabin  of  their  shat- 
tered bark,  subscribed  that  immortal  document,  the  first  written  compact 
the  world  ever  saw  for  the  organization  of  a  self-governed  community.. 
The  fourth  name  signed  to  this  agreement  is  that  of  "  Mr.  William 
Brewster." 

The  venerable  teaching  elder,  or  pastor,  of  the  church  had  been  left 
behind  at  Ley  den,  unable  from  family  and  personal  circumstances  to  em- 
bark with  the  colonists.  He  gave  them  his  j^arting  charge  and  benedic- 
tion, and  remained  to  care  for  the  remnant  of  the  flock,  and  to  die  five 
years  after  at  Leyden.  The  only  pastor  and  spiritual  guide  of  the  Pil- 
grim church  was  Brewster,  who,  being  merely  a  ruling  elder,  was  incom- 
petent in  the  judgment  of  Robinson  to  administer  church  ordinances.. 
They  had  been  accustomed  at  Leyden  to  attend  weekly  on  the  Lord's 
Supper ;  but  they  now  went  for  years  without  a  sacrament.  A  feeble 
and,  as  it  turned  out,  unprincipled  Puritan  minister  named  Lyford  —  one 
of  the  kind  that  still  looked  back  to  the  flesh-pots  of  a  state  church  es- 
tablishment —  had  joined  them ;  but  the  Pilgrims  distrusted  him,  and  re- 
fused to  recognize  his  episcopal  orders.  They  had  by  this  Brewster's  great 
time  developed  into  thorough  separatists,  and  had  learned  '^°^^- 
that  the  right  to  minister  among  the  people  must  proceed  from  the 
people  themselves.    Elder  Brewster  therefore  continued  to  be  their  sole 

35 


546  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

religious  teacher,  preaching  to  them  regularly  on  the  Lord's  day.  While 
he  expressly  disclaimed  the  authority  of  an  ordained  teacher,  he  watched 
over  them  in  respect  to  life  and  doctrine.  He  healed  their  dissen- 
sions, and  encouraged  them  in  their  sore  trials.  When  the  first  dread- 
.ful  winter  swept  off  half  their  little  company,  and  nearly  all  the  rest 
were  prostrate  from  disease  and  starvation,  he  was  one  of  the  handful 
who  went  from  house  to  house  nursing  the  sick,  comforting  the  dying, 
and  carrying  out  the  dead  for  burial.  Wise,  humble,  hopeful,  strong  in 
faith,  never  losing  courage  even  in  the  darkest  of  the  many  dark  days 
that  lowered  on  the  suffering  colony,  he  was  the  great  type  of  that  heroic 
and  unquenchable  religious  sentiment  that  inspired  and  sustained  the 
whole  enterprise. 

"  In  teaching  he  was  very  stirring,  and  moving  the  affections ;  also 
very  plain  and  distinct  in  what  he  taught ;  by  which  he  became  the  more 
profitable  to  the  hearers.  He  had  a  singular  good  gift  in  prayer,  both 
public  and  private,  in  rijoping  up  the  heart  and  conscience  before  God,  in 
the  humble  confession  of  sin,  and  begging  the  mercies  of  God  in  Christ 
for  the  pardon  thereof.  He  thought  it  were  better  for  ministers  to  pray 
oftener,  and  divide  their  prayers,  than  to  be  long  and  tedious  in  the 
same,"  —  in  which  sentiment  we  cordially  concur. 

So  the  elder  of  Plymouth  labored  and  suffered  on,  thinking  affliction 
with  the  people  of  God  greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt. 
Some  of  his  puritanically  baptized  children,  Jonathan,  Love,  Fear,  Pa- 
tience, Wrestling,  came  over  to  cheer  his  old  age,  and  stand  by  his  death- 
bed. His  pilgrimage  had  been  long  and  weary.  Of  his  eighty  years  of 
.life,  nearly  half  had  been  spent  in  suffering  and  exile  for  conscience'  sake. 
His  release  came  on  the  16th  of  April,  1644.^  Giving  up  everything  for 
Christ,  storm-tost  and  buffeted  by  sea  and  land,  stripped  of  his  worldly 
goods  and  hunted  like  a  felon,  he  saw  the  community  he  had  done  so 
much  to  found  safely  past  the  period  of  its  feeble  infancy,  and  entering 
on  its  irresistible  march  across  the  continent ;  and  he  died  in  a  vigorous 
old  age,  calm  and  peaceful,  amid  the  tears  and  benedictions  of  his  fellow- 
citizens. 

"  To  a  youth  of  ease  and  affluence,  familiar  with  ambassadors  and 
statesmen,  and  not  unknown  to  courts,  succeeded  a  mature  age  of  ob- 
scurity, deep  study,  and  poverty.  No  human  creature  would  have  heard 
of  him  had  his  career  ended  with  his  official  life.  Two  centuries  and  a 
half  have  passed  away,  and  the  name  of  the  outlawed  Puritan  of  Scrooby 
.and  Leydeu  is  still  familiar  to  millions  of  the  English  race."  ^ — S.  H. 

1  Although  in  the  space  between  the  end  of  Life  I.  and  the  beginning  of  Life  II.  more 
than  half  a  century  is  comprised,  no  person  of  that  period  seems  to  claim  a  place  when 
three  Congregational  leaders  are  called  foroutof  colonial  times.  Cotton  Mather  (1062-1728) 
was  "honorable,"  but  "attained  not  unto  the  first  three."  John  Eliot  (1604-1690)  de- 
serves to  he  termed  Leader,  for  his  work  in  the  field  of  Indian  missions,  but  (since  only  one 
such  can  have  place  in  this  volume)  he  must  yield  to  David  Zcisberger,  the  Moravian. — 
H.  M.  M. 

2  John  of  Barneveld,  ii.  289. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]      JONATHAN  EDWARDS.  547 

LIFE  11.     JONATHAN  EDWARDS. 

A.    D.    1703-A.    D.    1758.      CONGREGATIONAL,  —  AMERICA. 

America  is  indebted  to  New  England  for  many  of  its  greatest  names. 
A  few  of  these  names  belong  to  the  colonial  period  of  our  history. 
Among  these  few,  none  is  more  conspicuous  than  that  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards. Of  all  the  religious  thinkers  of  modern  times,  he  is  one  of  the 
best  known  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  He  was  born  in  a  century 
fruitful  in  men  of  philosophical  genius,  but  he  was  the  peer  of  each  of 
his  contemporaries.  One  would  have  scarcely  expected  so  colonial  disad- 
great  a  man  to  rise  in  a  British  colony  as  yet  but  imper-  ■vantages. 
fectly  developed.  "  Emigration,"  said  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell,  "  tends  to 
barbarism."  In  a  colony  which  is  still  young,  one  looks  for  a  vigorous 
but  crude  civilization.  He  is  not  surprised  to  find  there  men  of  unusual 
powers,  but  he  expects  to  see  those  powers  applied  to  trade,  to  politics, 
to  husbandry,  to  the  mechanical  arts,  rather  than  to  scholarly  reflection. 
Or  if  a  leader  of  thought  rise  in  a  new  people,  it  is  presumed  that  he 
will  exhaust  his  energies  in  resisting  downward  tendencies  rather  than  in 
drawing  men  to  lofty  ranges  of  thought  and  to  new  explorations. 

The  life  of  Edwards  we  shall  find  in  some  sense  exceptional.  There 
was  indeed  far  less  of  "  barbarism  "  in  New  England,  when  he  was  born, 
than  the  aphorism  just  quoted  would  suggest.  Many  a  wide  tract  of 
wilderness  was  there,  but  also  many  a  town  and  city,  where  the  best  cult- 
ure of  Great  Britain  found  a  congenial  home.  Nevertheless,  the  New 
England  student  of  that  day  was  required  to  pursue  his  studies  at  a 
distance  from  great  libraries,  and  without  contact  with  the  most  of  the 
great  minds  of  the  period.  He  was  obliged  also,  if  he  would  make  his 
influence  felt  upon  the  society  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  to  expend 
much  of  his  force  upon  questions  of  local  and  temporary  interest.  Jon- 
athan Edwards  must  be  studied  in  the  shadow  of  the  outward  conditions 
of  his  life,  as  well  as  in  the  light  of  liis  natural  genius  and  of  the  grace 
of  God. 

He  was  born  in  Windsor,  Connecticut,  October  5,  1703.  Windsor, 
which  has  never  risen  above  the  rank  of  a  village,  was,  at  the  date 
named,  a  settlement  of  farmers  attracted  to  the  valley  of  the  Connecti- 
cut by  its  fertile  soil.  The  pivotal  point  of  the  community  was  the 
church,  which  was  presided  over  by  a  man  of  eminent  abil-  E^^'ards's  par- 
ities,'Timothy  Edwards,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  who  had  ^''*^- 
enjoyed  the  singular  honor  of  receiving  the  two  degrees  of  Bachelor 
and  of  Master  of  Ai-ts  in  the  same  day,  in  testimony  of  his  "  extraor- 
dinary proficiency  in  learning."  The  wife  of  this  pastor  was  a  daughter 
of  Solomon  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  most 
cultured  and  influential  clergymen  in  the  land. 


548  THE    CHURCH'S  REFORMED   PROGRESS.     [Pkriod  V. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  therefore,  had  no  mean  parentage.  He  was  an 
only  son,  but  the  brother  of  ten  sisters,  some  of  whom  became  the  wives 
of  distino-uished  men.  As  may  be  supposed,  the  influences  which  sur- 
rounded him  in  his  boyhood  were  both  pure  and  powerful.  He  was  re- 
markably precocious.  He  blossomed  long  before  most  of  the  children 
of  his  ao-e  were  in  the  bud.  He  began  to  study  Latin  under  the  direc- 
tion of  his  father  when  he  was  six  years  of  age,  and  became  a  profi- 
cient in  that  language  whilst  some  of  his  companions  were  droning  over 
their  lessons  in  the  spelling-book.  At  the  same  time  other  branches  of 
study,  equally  advanced,  were  eagerly  pursued.  He  very  early  showed 
a  tendency  to  philosophical  speculation.  What  is  the  soul,  and  what  are 
its  relations  to  the  body  ?  This  was  a  question  which  interested  him 
whilst  other  boys  were  feasting  their  imaginations  with  the  "  Arabian 
Nights."  When  he  was  ten  years  of  age,  one  of  his  acquaintances  ad- 
vanced the  idea  that  the  soiil  is  material,  and  remains  with  the  body  until 
the  resurrection.  Young  Edwards  at  once  wrote  him  a  letter,  which 
though  without  date  or  punctuation,  or  even  division  into  sentences, 
runs  the  theory  to  the  reductio  ad  absurdum.  At  twelve  years  of  age 
he  composed  some  remarkable  papers  upon  questions  in  science.  Just  be- 
fore he  was  thirteen  he  entered  Yale  College,  and  during  the  nest  year, 
his  favorite  recreation  was  the  study  of  Locke's  "  Essay  on  the  Human 
Understanding,"  in  the  reading  of  which,  he  afterward  declared,  he  "  had 
more  satisfaction  and  pleasure  than  the  most  greedy  miser  in  gathering 
up  handfuls  of  silver  and  gold  from  some  new-discovered  treasure." 
Here  was  no  common  stuff  out  of  which  to  make  a  student.  The  col- 
lege was  then  in  its  infancy,  and  presented  few  of  the  advantages  which 
as  a  great  university  it  now  holds  forth,  but  the  student  was  produced, 
nevertheless.  Edwards  was  graduated  in  1720,  with  the  first  honors  of 
his  class,  and  with  a  reputation  for  deportment  as  high  as  for  scholar- 
iiis  religious  de-  ^'^P*  ^is  religions  development,  indeed,  was  as  early  and 
veiopment.  ^g  remarkable  as  his  mental.     When  he  was  about  seven 

years  of  age,  one  of  those  powerful  revivals,  so  many  of  which  are 
recorded  in  the  history  of  New  England,  occurred  in  his  father's  parish. 
He  was  not  at  that  time  a  stranger  to  serious  questions  as  to  the  state  of 
his  soul,  or  to  habits  of  devotion.  But  now  he  was  filled  with  anxiety, 
and  was  "  abundant  in  religious  duties."  He  resorted  to  secret  prayer 
five  times  a  day.  He  spent  much  time  with  his  companions  in  religious 
conversation.  He  united  with  some  of  his  school-mates  in  the  erection 
of  a  booth  in  a  very  secluded  part  of  a  swamp.  This  they  made  their 
oratory.  Besides  this,  he  had  his  favorite  spots  in  the  woods,  to  which 
he  was  accustomed  to  retire  for  solitary  prayer  and  thought.  "  My  af- 
fections," he  says,  "  seemed  to  be  lively  and  easily  moved,  and  I  seemed 
to  be  in  my  element  when  I  engaged  in  religious  duties."  Yet  in  ma- 
turer  days  he  looked  with  doubt  upon  this  early  religious  experience,  as 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]      JONATHAN  EDWARDS.  549 

neither  genuine  nor  deep.  "  I  am  ready  to  think  many  are  deceived 
with  such  affections,  and  such  a  kind  of  delight  as  I  then  had  in  religion, 
and  mistake  it  for  grace."  This  shows  the  severe  self-examination  to 
which  he  accustomed  himself  from  the  first,  yet  perhaps  his  verdict  in 
this  case  was  warranted,  since  he  goes  on  to  record,  "  In  the  progress 
of  time,  my  convictions  and  affections  wore  off,  and  I  entirely  lost  all 
those  affections  and  delights,  and  left  off  secret  prayer,  at  least  as  to  any 
constant  preference  of  it,  and  returned  like  a  dog  to  his  vomit,  and  went 
on  in  the  ways  of  sin."  It  is  noteworthy,  as  showing  the  thoughtful 
turn  of  his  mind,  that  even  in  these  tender  years  of  childhood,  he  re- 
volted against  "  the  doctrine  of  God's  sovereignty,  in  choosing  whom  He 
would  to  eternal  life,  and  rejecting  whom  He  pleased."  He  was  stiU  a 
mere  boy  when  this  difficulty  vanished,  as  he  believed  under  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Then  the  character  of  God  assumed  to  him 
a  new  aspect.  Even  the  works  of  God  seemed  to  his  nature-loving  eyes 
suffused  by  a  new  glory.  It  was  like  the  change  we  often  notice  in  con- 
nection with  a  summer  sunset.  The  clouds  which  just  now  were  black 
and  frowning  are  lighted  with  splendor,  not  merely  bathed  with  radi- 
ance, but  seemingly  transfigured,  filled  with  rosy  light  from  centre  to 
surface.  "  The  appearance  of  everything  was  altered ;  there  seemed  to  be, 
as  it  were,  a  calm,  sweet  cast,  or  appearance  of  divine  glory  in  almost 
everything.  God's  excellency,  his  wisdom,  his  purity  and  love,  seemed 
to  ajDpear  in  everything :  in  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  in  the  clouds  and 
blue  sky,  in  the  grass,  flowers,  trees,  in  the  water  and  all  nature,  which 
used  greatly  to  fix  my  mind."  All  this  shows  the  vividness  of  his  im- 
agination, as  his  previous  doubts  showed  the  unfolding  of  his  reasoning 
faculties.  The  grace  of  God  is  doubtless  to  be  recognized  in  these  ex- 
periences, but  as  the  workings  of  grace  are  individual,  we  get  glimpses 
of  the  constitution  of  the  soul  through  its  spiritual  experiences. 

After  graduation,  he  spent  two  years  at  Yale  as  resident,  pursuing  his 
theological  studies.  He  was  then  licensed  to  preach.  This  geginj,  to 
was  several  months  before  he  was  nineteen.  He  next  spent  P^^each. 
about  eight  months  in  preaching  to  a  small  Presbyterian  church  in  New 
York  city.  It  was  no  small  compliment  to  the  young  preacher  that  his 
hearers  became  so  fascinated  by  his  eloquence,  and  by  the  deep  sincerity 
of  his  life,  that  he  was  urgently  invited  to  become  their  pastor.  He  de- 
clined, however,  and  returned  to  Yale  to  accept  a  tutorship,  the  duties 
of  which  he  discharged  for  two  years.  Whilst  at  New  York,  his  habits 
of  solitary  thought  continued.  He  used  often  to  walk  alone  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  looking  sometimes  into  and  through  the  sky ; 
sometimes  into  and  through  his  own  heart ;  discovering  God  above  and 
sin  within.  In  the  solitary  hours  at  home,  he  studied  himself  again. 
As  the  result  of  these  studies  we  have  a  series  of  seventy  resolutions  for 
the  government  of  heart  and  life ;  which,  afterward  published,  have  be- 


550  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

come  a  sacred  heritage  of  the  world.  The  spiritual  and  ethical  charac- 
ter of  these  resolutions  is  of  the  most  exalted  type.  The  ideal  of  holiness 
which  they  disclose  is  poetically  expressed  by  himself  in  these  terms  : 
"  The  soul  of  a  true  Christian,  as  I  then  wrote  my  meditations,  appeared 
like  such  a  little  white  flower  as  we  see  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  low 
and  humble  on  the  ground,  ojjening  its  bosom  to  receive  the  pleasant 
beams  of  the  sun's  glory;  rejoicing,  as  it  were,  in  a  calm  rapture ;  diffus- 
ing aroimd  a  sweet  fragrancy ;  standing  peacefully  and  lovingly  in  the 
midst  of  other  flowers  round  about,  all  in  like  manner  opening  their  bo- 
soms to  drink  in  the  light  of  the  sun." 

His  tutorship  at  Yale  ended,  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  the  pastorate 
in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  and  was  there  ordained  in  February, 
1727,  as  colleague  of  his  grandfather,  Solomon  Stoddard.  No  pastorate 
in  New  England  could  have  been  more  attractive  to  him.  Northampton 
was  a  beautiful  town,  whose  environing  meadows,  conforming  them- 
selves to  the  windings  of  the  Connecticut  River,  were  fertile  enough  for  a 
modern  Eden.  If  Edwards  was  tempted  by  his  love  of  nature  to  fre- 
quent wanderings  on  the  shore  of  the  Hudson  at  New  York,  he  must 
have  been  gratified  by  the  carpeted  floors  of  these  meadows,  furnished 
then,  as  now,  by  the  lordly  elms  whose  grace  and  dignity  have  made 
them  famous.  Standing  beneath  one  of  these  elms,  he  could  see  the 
river  at  his  feet,  and  the  wooded  heights  of  Mount  Holyoke  and  of  its 
sister  hills  before  him,  holding  up  the  sapphire  dome  above ;  whilst  in 
place  of  the  "  little  white  flower "  of  the  Hudson  he  would  see  in  the 
waving  grass  the  "  lily  of  the  field,"  reminding  him  at  once  of  the  Sav- 
iour's teaching  and  of  the  Father's  care.  Northampton  was  also  the 
home  of  many  cultured  families.  It  was  no  place  in  which  to  find  illus- 
trations of  the  tendency  of  emigration  to  barbarism.  As  the  grandson 
of  an  honored  and  justly  celebrated  pastor,  Edwards  was  received  with 
the  more  interest,  and  his  great  abilities  made  the  more  profound  impres- 
sion because  of  the  favor  with  which  he  was  regarded. 

Before  his  ordination,  he  had  already  found  in  New  Haven  a  young 
Marries  Sarah  ^^^1  ^f  great  personal  beauty,  of  superior  mind,  of  unusual 
pierrepont.  accomplishments,  and  of  devoted  piety ;  towards  whom  his 

heart  went  out  so  warmly  that  he  asked  her  to  become  his  wife.  Her 
name  was  Sarah  Pierrepont.  This  is  a  part  of  his  characteristic  descrip- 
tion of  her,  written  on  a  blank  leaf  in  1723:  "They  say  there  is  a 
young  lady  in  New  Haven,  who  is  loved  of  that  Great  Being  who  made 
and  rules  the  world,  and  that  there  are  certain  seasons  in  which  this 
Great  Being,  in  some  way  or  other  invisible,  comes  to  her  and  fills  her 

mind  with  exceeding  sweet  delight She  has  a  strange  sweetness 

in  her  mind,  and  singular  purity  in  her  affections ;  is  most  just  and  con- 
^cientious  in  all  her  conduct;  and  you  could  not  persuade  her  to  do  any- 
thing wrong  or  sinful,  if  you  would  give  her  all  the  world She 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]      JONATHAN  EDWARDS.  551 

loves  to  be  alone,  walking  in  the  fields  and  groves,  and  seems  to  have 
some  one  invisible  always  conversing  with  her."  In  this  sketch,  his  de- 
scription sets  forth  one  of  soul  so  kindred  to  his  own,  that  both  color  and 
outline  seem  to  be  taken  from  his  own  heart.  He  was  married  to  her 
in  July,  1727,  and  found  in  her  all  that  his  hopes  had  promised,  not  only 
as  a  companion,  but  also  as  an  assistant.  After  the  fashion  of  the  day 
she  took  upon  herself  the  oversight  of  everything  connected  with  his 
pecuniary  expenditures,  leaving  him  wholly  unembarrassed  in  the  pros- 
ecution of  his  professional  work.  She  was  the  mother  of  eleven  chil- 
dren —  three  sous  and  eight  daughters  —  of  whose  names  several  occupy 
distinguished  places  in  New  England  history. 

Soon  after  his  ordination,  Edwards  obtained  a  wide  celebrity  as  a 
preacher.  Many  of  his  sermons  were  carefully  written  and  somewhat 
closely  read.  He  sometimes  preached  without  manuscript ;  yet  even 
then  he  seldom  made  a  gesture,  and  the  tones  of  his  voice  were  not  com- 
manding. But  his  thought  and  language  were  so  powerful,  and  his  words 
were  sometimes  so  surcharged  with  feeling,  that  eloquence  has  seldom  ac- 
complished more  than  when  it  poured  from  his  lips.  He  was  especially 
powerful  in  presenting  the  divine  law,  the  sovereignty  of  God,  the  sin- 
fulness of  man,  and  justification  by  faith.  By  the  prevailing  theology  of 
his  da} ,  a  "  law-work "  in  the  conscience  producing  deep  conviction  of 
sin,  and  leading  the  sinner  to  cast  himself  upon  the  sovereign  mercies  of 
God,  was  one  of  the  prominent  ends  of  preaching.  In  promoting  this 
"  law-work,"  much  use  was  made  of  the  doctrine  of  future  endless  pun- 
ishment. This  doctrine  was  perhaps  never  more  powerfully  ^^  ^^^^^  ^^^_ 
brought  to' bear  than  by  Edwards  in  a  sermon  celebrated  in  ^om. 
homiletic  annals,  upon  the  text,  "•  Their  foot  shall  slide  in  due  time  " 
(Deuteronomy  xxxii.  35).  This  sermon  was  preached  at  Enfield,  Connect- 
icut. Tradition  says  that  such  was  its  effect  that  men  grasped  the  rail- 
ings of  the  pews  as  if  about  to  sink  into  perdition.  One  says,  "  There 
was  such  a  breathing  of  distress  and  weeping  that  the  preacher  was 
obliged  to  speak  to  the  people  and  desire  silence  that  he  might  be  heard." 
It  was  on  this  or  on  some  similar  occasion,  that  a  brother  minister,  sit- 
ting behind  Edwards  in  the  puljiit,  appalled  by  his  eloquence,  grasped 
the  coat  of  the  preacher  and  cried,  "  Mr.  Edwards  !  Mr.  Edwards !  Is 
not  God  merciful  ?  " 

Edwards  had  been  the  colleague  of  his  grandfather  about  two  years, 
when  the  latter  died.  The  new  burdens  thus  devolved  upon  the  young 
pastor  proved  for  a  time  too  much  for  his  strength ;  but  a  brief  period  of 
repose  restored  him,  and  he  resumed  his  work  with  his  wonted  energy. 
His  ministry  was  characterized  by  several  revivals.  During  1734  and 
1735,  in  fact,  a  wave  of  religious  interest  swept  over  all  New  England. 
In  Northampton  its  results  were  most  beneficent.  Edwards  promoted 
the  prevailing  interest  in  all  safe  ways.     His  preaching  at  this  time,  as 


552  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

always,  was  eminently  doctrinal,  and  is  described  as  "  of  the  most  pun- 
gent, heart-searching,  and  often  terrific  character."  The  whole  commu- 
nity wore  a  new  aspect,  presenting  the  appearance  of  a  moral  renovation. 
In  many  places,  however,  where  weaker  minds  were  in  control,  extrav- 
agance and  fanaticism  prevailed.  But  as  in  the  Reformation  Luther, 
who  had  fed  the  fires  of  reform,  broke  out  of  the  Wartburg  to  check  the 
fanatics  of  Zwickau,  so  also  Edwards,  "  terrific "  at  Northampton,  be- 
came conservative  among  the  radical  revivalists  abroad.  He  opposed 
erratic  movements  with  all  his  might.  He  talked,  wrote,  and  preached 
against  them ;  striving  to  guard  against  a  spurious  religion  as  earnestly 
as  he  strove  to  promote  that  which  was  genuine.  The  |:^rmanent  issue 
of  the  controversy  was  his  work  on  "  The  Religious  Affections,"  which, 
long  after  his  day,  was  widely  used  as  a  standai-d  test  of  piety. 

For  sixteen  years,  that  is,  until  1744,  the  ministry  of  Edwards  was 
eminently  successful.  During  this  period  he  gave  a  number  of  sermons 
and  treatises  to  the  press,  and  began  to  be  known  and  honored  even 
across  the  sea.  But  now  a  change  came,  which,  whilst  it 
drew  a  shadow  over  his  life,  made  that  life  more  useful 
than  ever.  His  fidelity  to  the  truth  was  so  great  that  he  could  bear 
nothing  which  seemed  to  compromise  it.  He  was  prudent ;  but  his  cour- 
age was  equal  to  any  emergency  in  which  a  selfish  prudence  would  sug- 
gest taking  counsel  of  fear.  He  discovered  that  immoral  jjractices  were 
prevailing  among  some  of  the  young  people  of  his  congregation.  Before 
he  came  to  Northampton  his  grandfather  Stoddard  had  "  witnessed  a  far 
more  degenerate  time  among  his  people  than  ever  before.  The  young 
became  addicted  to  habits  of  dissipation  and  licentiousness ;  family  gov- 
ernment too  generally  failed,"  etc.  Great  imjDrovement  took  place  under 
the  preaching  of  Edwards ;  but  when  he  saw  the  signs  of  a  relapse  to- 
ward old  habits,  he  at  once  raised  the  alarm.  He  preached  a  most  im- 
pressive sermon  on  the  subject,  and  then,  stating  the  facts  which  had 
come  to  his  knowledge,  requested  an  investigation.  His  request  was 
complied  with  ;  but  the  investigation  implicated  so  many  belonging  to  in- 
fluential families,  and,  justly  or  unjustly,  cast  suspicion  upon  so  many 
more,  that  the  discipline  proposed  wholly  broke  down,  and  in  its  fall  Ed- 
wards's influence  among  the  young  was  greatly  weakened.  A  few  years 
afterward,  when  a  more  serious  difficulty  arose,  he  was  himself  broken 
down  by  the  storm. 

This  difficulty,  like  the  other,  grew  out  of  his  fearless  conscientious- 
ness. The  church  at  Northampton  had,  during  his  grandfather's  min- 
istry, adopted  the  practice  known  as  that  of  the  "  Halfway  Covenant." 
This  practice  was  then  common  in  New  England.  To  understand  it  we 
must  turn  a  leaf  of  history.  The  Puritan  colonies  were  distinguished, 
from  their  earliest  period,  by  a  peculiar  union  of  church  and  state.  The 
theory  was  not,  as  in  England,  that  the  state  should  rule  the  church,  but 


Cknt.XVII.-X1X.]      JONATHAN  EDWARDS.  553 

rather  that  the  state  should  be  the  supporter  of  the  church,  and  carry  out 
its  principles  by  legislation.  It  was  a  modified  theocracy.  Hence  every 
citizen  was  required  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  church.  Each 
township  inclosed  a  parish,  and  was  incorporated  with  a  view  to  con- 
venience in  attending  public  worship  and  to  the  support  of  the  ordi- 
nances of  religion.  A  regular  tax  was  irajDOsed  upon  each  resident  of  a 
township  for  the  supjjort  of  its  minister  and  for  the  other  expenses  of 
the  sanctuary,  which  was  styled  a  "  meeting-house,"  in  true  Puritan  par- 
lance. It  was,  moreover,  enacted  by  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
in  1631,  that  "no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  the  body 
politic  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  lim- 
its of  the  same."  In  other  words,  no  one  should  hold  civil  office,  or 
vote  at  the  ordinary  elections,  unless  a  church  member.  This  provision 
was  later  adopted  by  the  Connecticut  colonies,  and  throughout  Massa- 
chusetts, Maine,  and  New  Ilampshire.  The  result  was  an  expedient  by 
which  persons  not  considering  themselves  Christians,  in  the  higher  sense 
of  that  term,  might  be  counted  as  members  of  the  church,  and  thus  be 
enfranchised.  This  expedient,  adopted  by  a  synod  in  Massachusetts 
in  1662,  was  styled  the  Halfway  Covenant.  It  was  provided  that  all 
baptized  persons  might  publicly  "  own  the  covenant "  without  entering 
into  full  communion,  and  thus  be  enrolled  in  the  church,  promising  to 
pass  the  other  half  way  on  their  spiritual  regeneration.  This  filled  the 
churches,  but  brought  into  them  many  pei'sons  of  ungodly  character. 
The  standard  of  piety  became  thereby  gradually  but  surely  depressed. 
Stoddard  had  pressed  the  theory  to  a  conclusion  never  designed  by  those 
who  framed  it.  In  1704  he  openly  avowed  the  opinion  that  those  who 
had  taken  the  Halfway  Covenant  might  be  admitted  to  full  communion  ; 
"  that  unconverted  persons,  considered  as  such,  had  a  right,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  or  by  his  appointment,  to  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper ;  that  thereby  it  was  their  duty  to  come  to  that  ordinance,  though 
they  knew  they  had  no  true  goodness  or  evangelical  holiness."  This 
principle,  though  at  first  opposed,  was  finally  adopted  in  Northampton, 
and  by  degrees  spread  through  various  parts  of  New  England.  Ed- 
wards, when  first  settled  at  Northampton,  doubted  the  soundness  of  this 
principle,  but  did  not  then  feel  prepared  to  oppose  it.  As  time  passed 
on,  his  doubts  increased,  and  finally  settled  into  the  conviction  that  the 
principle  was  wholly  wrong.  It  was  not  his  habit  to  conceal  his  con- 
victions when  they  were  fully  matured.  In  the  spring  of  1749,  it  be- 
came generally  known  in  his  parish  that  he  was  opposed  to  a  practice 
which,  by  its  long  continuance,  had  become  dear  to  his  parishioners.  A 
great  excitement  followed.  His  dismissal  was  loudly  demanded.  He 
held  his  ground.  He  preached  and  published  upon  the  subject.  A  mi- 
nority of  the  people  were  convinced  that  he  was  right.  The  cogency  of 
his  arguments  affected  in  his  favor  the  minds  of  mo'st  spiritual  Chris- 


554  THE    CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

tians  far  and  wide.  But  the  local  opposition  was  too  strong  for  him.  He 
Displaced  from  ^^^  obliged  to  relinquish  his  pastorate.  He  preached  a 
Northampton.  farewell  sermon  which  for  solemnity,  pathos,  and  fidelity  has 
rarely  been  equaled.  He  retired  with  dignity  to  private  life,  occasion- 
ally preaching  for  his  former  people,  when  they  had  no  other  supply, 
until  even  that  became  intolerable  to  the  majority,  and  they  formally 
voted  that  he  should  not  again  be  permitted  to  enter  the  pulpit.  The 
minority  wished  to  form  a  new  church  and  install  him  as  pastor,  but  he 
magnanimously  declined  to  favor  their  plan.  Without  income,  with  a 
large  family,  being  then  forty-six  years  of  age,  and  considering  a  reset- 
tlement as  pastor  improbable,  he  cheerfully  faced  the  future,  looking  up- 
ward. His  friends  rallied  for  his  support.  His  wants  became  known  in 
Scotland,  where  he  was  already  revered  for  his  talents  and  piety.  His 
friends  there  sent  him  a  liberal  donation.  Yet  this  did  not  save  him 
from  hardship  and  privation.  Joseph  Cook,  in  one  of  his  Boston  lect- 
ures of  1877,  thus  spoke  of  him  at  this  period  :  — 

"  I  know  where  in  Massachusetts  I  can  put  my  hand  on  little  irregu- 
lar scraps  of  brown  paper,  stitched  together  as  note-books,  and  closely 
covered  all  over  with  Jonathan  Edwards's  handwriting.  Why  did  he  use 
such  coarse  material  in  his  studies  ?  Why  was  he  within  sight  of  star- 
vation ?  Because  he  had  opposed  the  Halfway  Covenant.  Why  did  that 
man  need  to  accept  from  Scotland  funds  with  which  to  maintain  his  fam- 
ily ?  Because  he  opposed  the  Halfway  Covenant.  Why  did  his  wife  and 
daughters  make  fans  and  sell  them  to  buy  bread  ?  Because  he  opposed 
the  Halfway  Covenant ;  because  he  defended  with  vigor,  as  Whitefield 
did,  the  idea  that  a  man  should  not  be  a  minister  unless  converted,  or  a 
church  member  unless  converted,  and  so  set  himself  against  the  whole 
trend  of  this  huge,  turbid,  hungry,  haughty  wave  of  secularization  that 
had  been  rising  smce  1631.  Of  course,  he  was  abandoned  by  the  fash- 
ionable. Of  course,  his  life  was  in  some  sense  a  martyrdom.  His  note- 
books were  made  from  the  refuse  of  brown  paper  left  from  the  fans. 
There  is  nothing  Massachusetts  so  little  likes  to  be  fanned  with  as  those 
fans  Jonathan  Edwards's  wife  and  daughters  made  and  sold  for  bread." 

To  him,  looking  upward,  the  future  soon  opened ;  but  not  as  man 
would  have  chosen  to  have  it  open.  No  large  church  was  ready  to  give 
him  a  pulpit  and  a  competent  salary.  But  in  1751  a  little  congregation 
in  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  invited  Edwards  to  become  its  pastor. 
At  the  same  time  a  missionary  society  in  London  offered  to  appoint 
him  missionary  to  the  Housatonic  Indians,  then  residing  at  Stockbridge 
and  in  its  vicinity.  The  field  to  which  he  was  called  was  literally  in  the 
wilderness.  There,  as  man  would  say,  this  mind  of  gigantic  powers, 
this  heart  of  exalted  sanctification,  were  to  be  buried.  The  grandest 
theologian  of  New  England  was  to  spend  his  days  in  preaching  to  a 
handful  of  settlers,  and  in  expounding  the  gospel  through  an  interpreter 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]      JONATHAN  EDWARDS.  655 

to  an  Indian  tribe.  Edwards  did  not  hesitate.  This  was  to  him  the  call 
of  Providence.  He  obeyed ;  and  the  world  has  long  acknowledged  that 
this  "  exile  "  was,  under  Providence,  for  the  flowering  of  his  genius,  and 
for  the  consummation  of  that  work  which  could  have  been  done  only  in 
the  solitudes.  Edwards  was  led  into  the  wilderness  that  he  might  thence 
send  out  his  influences  round  the  earth  and  down  the  centuries. 

He  remained  in  Stockbridge  about  six  years.  During  those  years  he 
composed  his  treatises  upon  "  The  Freedom  of  the  Will," 
'^  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin,"  "  The  End  for  ™'  ^''''*  ^°°^'' 
which  God  created  the  World,"  "  The  Nature  of  True  Vu-tue,"  and  "  The 
History  of  Redemption."  These  works  were  not  compilations  of  other 
men's  thoughts ;  they  were  original.  He  had  but  few  books.  The 
room  in  which  he  wrote  was  a  mere  closet,  opening  out  of  one  of  the 
apartments  of  his  dwelling.  At  each  end  of  the  closet  were  a  few  nar- 
row shelves  for  his  library.  Between  them  was  a  window.  Beside  this 
window  was  a  desk,  leaving  room  only  for  the  chair  on  which  the  writer 
sat.  The  house  still  stands,  and  visitors  still  resort  to  this  closet  and 
wonder  over  what  came  out  of  it.  Of  his  outer  life  in  Stockbridge  there 
is  little  to  record.  Of  his  pastorate  and  his  mission  labors  there  is  noth- 
ing to  be  written  which  might  not  have  been  written  had  he  been  but  an 
ordinary  man.  Possibly  an  ordinary  man  would  have  effected  more  as 
merely  pastor  and  missionary  during  these  six  years. 

The  great  work  of  Edwards's  life  had  already  been  accomplished  when, 
in  1757,  he  was  elected  president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  at 
Princeton.  His  predecessor  was  his  own  son-in-law,  Aaron  Burr,  who 
died  two  days  before  Commencement,  in  1757.  The  trustees  met  on 
Commencement  day,  and  made  choice  of  Edwards  as  his  successor.  His 
reply  to  their  communication  was  not  favorable.  With  great  modesty, 
and  with  the  simplicity  of  a  boy,  he  gave  his  reasons  for  believing  himself 
unfitted  for  the  ofiice.  He  had  an  ''  unhappy  constitution,  attended  with 
flaccid  solids,  vapid,  sizy,  and  scarce  fluids,  and  a  low  tide  of  spirits." 
He  was  often  afflicted  with  a  "  childish  weakness  and  contemptibleness 
of  speech,  presence,  and  demeanor."  He  was  dull  and  stiff  in  conversa- 
tion, and  thought  he  could  not,  in  his  dyspeptic  moods,  govern  a  college. 
His  friends,  however,  thought  otherwise.  He  yielded  to  their  judgment, 
was  dismissed  from  his  pastorate  in  January,  1758,  and  immediately  re- 
moved to  Princeton.  Very  soon  after  his  inauguration,  in  consequence 
of  the  prevalence  of  the  small-pox,  he  adopted  the  protective  measure 
of  the  day,  was  inoculated  with  the  disease,  recovered  from  the  first 
effects  of  the  inoculation,  was  then  attacked  by  a  secondary  fever,  and 
died  March  22d,  having  resided  in  Princeton  about  nine  weeks.  His 
age  was  fifty-four  years,  five  months,  and  seventeen  days. 

Notwithstanding  his  brief  term  of  office,  he  has  passed  into  history  as 
President  Edwards,  in  distinction  from  his  son  Jonathan,  who  became 


556  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

famous  as  a  theologian,  and  bears  the  title  of  "  Dr.  Edwards  "  among 
the  students  of  theology. 

Our  limits  will  not  permit  us  to  describe  in  detail  the  great  works  of 
Edwards  on  the  Pi'Gsident  Edwards,  the  titles  of  which  have  been  already 
^'^^-  given.     The  most  important  of  these  works  is  the  treatise 

on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will.  Its  occasion  was  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  upon  Calvinism  in  England,  by  such  writers  as  Dr.  Samuel  Clark 
and  Dr.  Whitby,  who  held  that  Calvinism  logically  denies  human  free- 
dom. This  objection  was  considered  so  formidable  in  Great  Britain 
that  to  meet  it  some  of  the  most  spiiitual  of  the  Calvinists,  such  as  Dr. 
Isaac  Watts  and  Dr.  Philip  Doddridge,  felt  themselves  obliged  to  affirm 
that  the  will  is  self-determined.  President  Edwards  regarded  this  po- 
sition as  fatal  to  the  doctrine  of  divine  sovereignty,  since  it  limited  God's 
power ;  and  to  the  doctrine  of  grace  in  conversion,  since  it  made  con- 
version dependent  on  the  will  of  man.  Interpreters  vary  as  to  the 
precise  manner  in  which  he  met  the  difficulty.  His  radical  principles 
may  be  stated  as  these  :  The  faculty  of  the  will  is  that  power  of  the 
mind  which  renders  it  caj^able  of  choosing ;  the  choice  of  the  will  is  inva- 
riably determined  by  "  that  motive  which  as  it  stands  in  the  view  of  the 
mind  is  the  strongest,"  the  connection  between  the  greatest  apparent 
good  and  the  act  of  the  will  being  fixed.  God  foreknows  and  can  pre- 
determine all  human  acts ;  the  will  in  choosing  is  free,  —  that  is,  the 
mind  in  choosing  has  the  physical  ability  or  natural  capacity  to  choose 
otherwise ;  its  inability  to  choose  in  a  holy  manner  is  therefore  moral 
only.  "  The  thing  wanting  is  not  a  being  able,  but  a  being  unlling." 
Out  of  these  principles  is  evolved  the  conclusion  that  man  is  perfectly 
free  and  responsible,  yet  God  is  absolutely  sovereign  in  his  control. 
Whatever  may  be  said  in  criticism  of  this  work  for  or  against  it,  no  one 
denies  that  it  moulded  the  thinking  of  many  generations.  President 
Edwards  was  the  founder  of  what  has,  ever  since  his  day,  been  dis- 
tinguished as  New  England  theology.  His  son,  Dr.  Edwards,  and  his 
pupils,  Bellamy  and  Hopkins,  doubtless  modified  his  system ;  but  they 
professed  to  get  the  materials  with  which  they  wrought  largely  out  of 
his  quarry.  The  estimate  of  him  made  by  the  j^rofoundest  thinkers 
abroad  is,  if  possible,  higher  than  that  of  the  thinkers  of  his  native  land. 
Dugald  Stewart  spoke  of  him  as  equal  "  in  logical  acuteness  and  sub- 
tlety "  to  any  writer  of  his  day.  It  will  be  affirmed  by  none  of  his  ad- 
mirers that  he  reached  the  utmost  limits  of  human  philosophy ;  but  if  to 
take  hold  of  the  greatest  questions  of  philosophy  with  a  master  hand 
and  to  hold  them  with  the  grasp  of  a  giant,  to  draw  with  him  along  the 
track  of  his  inquiry  the  strongest  minds  of  his  time,  and  to  color  all 
theology  for  a  century  is  to  win  a  title  to  greatness,  that  titk  belongs  to 
him.  Of  his  intercourse  with  such  men  as  Whitefield  and  Brainerd,  the 
missionary,  we  have  said  nothing.     To  his  influence  in  promoting  and 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  SAMUEL  HOPKINS.  557 

directing  the  wonderful  revivals  of  his  day  we  have  only  alluded. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  have  been  assisted  by  him  in  the  divine  life. 
His  work  on  the  Religious  Affections  is  now  less  used  as  a  test  of  piety 
than  it  was  a  generation  since.  His  theory  of  Original  Sin  is  generally 
abandoned  by  theologians ;  indeed,  it  was  never  very  widely  adojited. 
But  he  will  long  be  regarded  as  in  many  respects  first  among  the  re- 
ligious thinkers  of  America.  Very  few  have  ever  put  so  much  into  a 
mortal  life  as  did  he ;  very  few  have  ever  brought  so  much  out  of  a 
half  century  of  mortal  existence.  Always  feeble  in  body,  his  soul  had 
the  wing  and  the  eye  of  an  eagle.  We  can  only  guess  what  it  must  be 
now  that  it  has  more  than  the  wing  and  the  eye  of  an  angel.  —  Z.  M.  H. 


LIFE  III.     SAMUEL  HOPKINS,  OF   NEWPORT. 

A.    D.    1721-A.    D.    1803.      CONGREGATIONAL, AMERICA. 

It  may  justly  be  regarded  as  a  characteristic  fact,  illustrating  the  all- 
subduing  and  subsidizing  power  of  Christianity,  that  wherever  it  is  intel- 
ligently and  heartily  received  it  lays  under  contribution  the  entire  nature 
of  its  disciples ;  not  their  intellect  alone,  nor  their  sensibilities  alone,  but 
the  whole  force  and  potency  of  their  being.  The  great  Christian  doctors 
of  past  ages  were  not  mere  closet  theologians,  but  laborious  and  enthusi- 
astic preachers,  bold  reformers,  zealous  philanthropists.  The  eminent 
Christian  fathers,  the  mediasval  divines,  the  modern  scientific  theologians, 
have  been,  many  of  them,  as  distinguished  for  active  benevolence  as  for 
the  successful  prosecution  of  sacred  lore  ;  making  good  in  the  sphere  of 
Christianity  the  old  adage,  Aheunt  studia  in  mores. 

The  popular  idea  of  a  Christian  polemic  is  a  man  of  narrow  mind  and 
perverted  sensibilities,  who  sets  the  projiagation  of  his  dogma  above  all 
human  nterests,  and  is  quite  willing  to  burn  men  here  and  damn  them 
hereafter  for  presuming  to  dispute  it.  But  a  polemic,  or  Clu'istian  the- 
ologian, is  usually  a  man  of  profound  beliefs  and  intense  loyalty  to  the 
truth,  whose  enthusiasm  is  kindled  by  the  conviction  that  the  acceptance 
of  his  dogma  is  essential  to  human  happiness  and  welfare.  He  may  be 
blinded  by  mere  love  of  disputation  or  eagerness  for  victory ;  his  zeal 
may  degenerate  into  dark  fanaticism ;  he  may  be  led  to  employ  most  un- 
happy and  mistaken  methods ;  his  views  themselves  may  be  utterly  des- 
titute of  foundation  in  philosophy  or  in  Scripture  ;  but  in  the  great  major- 
ity of  cases  they  have  been  maintained  under  the  persuasion  that  they 
were  intimately  linked  with  glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  with  peace  on 
earth,  and  with  good-ivill  to  men.  Many  are  the  instances  in  which  a  life 
of  self-sacrificing  benevolence  has  been  the  direct  outgrowth  of  philosoph- 
ical or  theological  systems  elaborated  in  the  closet. 


558  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

Near  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  gentleman  resident  in  the 
household  of  the  king  of  the  Balearic  Islands,  a  gay  and  dissipated  court- 
ier, was  brought  under  the  power  of  religious  truth,  and  led  to  enter 
on  a  life  of  earnest  piety.  Abandoning  his  career  of  pleasure,  he  de- 
voted himself  to  the  service  of  God  and  humanity.  The  object  on  which 
his  heart  became  fixed  was  the  conversion  of  the  Mohammedans ;  and  he 
set  about  preparing  for  this  work  in  the  most  deliberate  and  judicious 
manner.  Wiser  than  many  modern  missionaries,  he  did  not  propose  to 
throw  himself  among  a  joeople  to  whose  language  and  manners  he  was  an 
utter  stranger,  trusting  to  some  vague  and  unpromised  divine  assistance 
for  success.  He  proceeded,  in  the  first  place,  to  make  himself  familiar 
with  the  Arabic  language  and  literature.  He  purchased  in  the  Major- 
can  slave-market  a  Moorish  captive,  and  adopted  him  as  his  teacher. 
With  him  he  read  and  studied  the  Koran  until  he  had  thoroughly  mas- 
tered its  contents.  His  next  step  was  to  jDrepare  an  elaborate  refutation 
of  it;  and  then,  satisfied  that  the  MoUahs  could  teach  him  nothing  con- 
cerning their  own  Scriptures  that  he  did  not  already  know,  he  began  to 
build  up  what  he  regarded  as  an  absolutely  irrefragable  demonstration  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity.  This  was  the  famous  "  Ars  Generalis,"  by 
which  Raimund  Lull  flattered  himself  that  he  should  overcome  all  the 
possible  resistance  of  unbelief ;  and  backing  up  his  logic  with  his  life,  he 
went  single-handed,  again  and  again,  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  preaching  the 
gospel  to  the  Moors,  till  he  was  at  length  called  to  receive  the  crown  of 
martyrdom  as  the  reward  of  his  disintei'ested  benevolence. 

Not  unlike  Raimund  Lull  in  his  spirit  of  mystical  devotion  and  prac- 
tical philantlu'ojjy  was  the  humble  yet  illustrious  American  divine  of" 
Hopkins's  early    whom  we  are  now  to  speak.     Samuel  Hopkins  was  born  at 
^^-  Waterbury,  Connecticut,  September  17,   1721,  of  a  Puri- 

tan family  in  which,  from  the  first  immigration,  the  Scriptural  names 
of  Samuel,  Stephen,  Mark,  etc.,  had  been  perpetuated.  He  graduated 
at  Yale  College  in  1741.  Hopkins  had  been  educated  in  a  home  of  sim- 
ple piety,  and  imbued  from  the  cradle  with  the  principles  of  religion. 
While  in  college  he  passed  through  that  religious  crisis  common  to  a 
large  portion  of  those  who  have  composed  the  evangelical  ministry  of 
America,  in  which  he  became  impressed  with  a  sense  of  sinfulness,  and 
after  a  somewhat  protracted  period  of  struggle  and  doubt  was  brought 
to  the  experience  of  a  clear  and  solid  hope  in  Christ.  He  devoted  him- 
self to  the  ministry,  and  after  graduating  proceeded  to  Northampton, 
where  he  was  domesticated  in  the  house  of  President  Edwards,  and  en- 
joyed the  instructions  and  friendship  of  that  preeminent  theologian.  It 
cannot  be  said,  however,  that  his  education,  whether  academical  or  the- 
ological, was  of  a  high  order.  He  passed  only  respectably  through  col- 
lege at  a  time  when  the  standard  of  scholarship  in  Yale  College  was  not 
high,  and  his  reading  in  theology  was  brief  and  interrupted.     Of  any 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  SAMUEL  HOPKINS.  659 

knowledge  of  rhetoric  and  elocution  he  was  utterly  destitute.  He  had  a 
great  and  brawny  frame,  a  monotonous  voice,  a  dull  and  ponderous  manner. 
With  these  qualifications  he  began  his  ministry  in  a  little  village  of  thirty 
families,  called  afterwards  Great  Barrington,  and  at  a  salary  of  less  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  a  year.  Here  he  was  ordained  the  28th 
of  December,  1743. 

In  this  humble  parish  Mr.  Hopkins  continued  for  a  quarter  of  a  cent- 
ury ;  studying,  preaching,  elaborating  his  theology,  even  publishing  tracts 
and  sermons,  but  making  almost  no  impression  on  the  community.  In  a 
quarter  of  a  century  he  received  less  than  three  persons  a  year  to  the 
church.  The  state  of  morals  in  the  place  was  bad,  and  became  worse. 
He  had  a  wife  and  eight  children,  and  his  salary  was  no  better  than  when 
he  began.  It  was  agreed  on  all  hands  that  it  was  wise  for  him  to  resign 
his  charge;  and  he  was  dismissed  by  a  council  in  January,  1769. 

This  step  proved  happily  introductory  to  his  removal  to  the  far  more 
important  and  promising  field  of  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  where  he  was 
installed  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in  April,  1770. 
Newport  was  at  the  time  a  flourishing  little  city  of  about  ten  thousand 
inhabitants,  composed  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  politicians  and  people  of 
fashion,  Quakers  and  slave-dealers.  It  had  a  large  mercantile  marine, 
engaged  chiefly  in  the  African  trade.  Out  of  two  hundred  slave-ships 
bringing  their  human  cargoes  to  the  American  continent,  Newport  fitted 
out  more  than  a  quarter ;  the  merchant  princes  of  the  city  had  made 
their  fortunes  by  this  legalized  man-stealing,  and  there  was  no  respect- 
able family  in  the  place  but  owned  at  the  least  one  slave.  Christians, 
church  officers,  and  ministers  of  the  gospel  were  involved  in  the  iniquity. 
The  reasons  for  the  traffic  found  in  the  demand  for  labor,  especially  in 
the  Southern  colonies,  in  the  unceasing  intertribal  wars  in  Africa  at- 
tended with  the  massacre  of  prisoners,  in  the  missionary  character  of  the 
enterprise,  since  it  brought  the  blacks  within  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity, etc.,  reconciled  the  people  of  England  and  America  in  a  body  to 
the  slave-trade,  notwithstanding  its  admitted  cruelties  in  every  stage  of 
the  process.  The  most  eminent  Christian  ministers  held  slaves,  then  and 
long  after,  without  one  twinge  of  conscience,  or  a  suspicion  of  its  inconsist- 
ency with  the  law  of  God  or  the  principles  of  the  gospel.  The  subject  of 
this  story,  while  residing  at  Great  Barrington,  had  himself  owned  a  slave  ; 
and  his  teacher  in  the  faith,  Jonathan  Edwards,  left  one  by  will  as  a  part 
of  his  "  quick  "  or  live  stock,  at  a  valuation  of  one  hundred  dollars. 

Up  to  the  time  of  Mr.  Hopkins's  removal  to  Newport  hardly  any  pub- 
lic or  influential  protest  had  been  made  in  any  quarter  against  the  slave- 
trade,  and  still  less  against  the  unrighteousness  of  slavery  itself.  The 
Quakers  had  indeed  long  before  lifted  up  a  feeble  note  of  remonstrance 
against  the  former ;  and  Anthony  Benezet  in  Philadelphia,  and  Granville 
Sharp  in  England,  had  published  tracts  against  it  as  early  as  1769.     In 


560  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

1772  the  latter  secured,  in  the  famous  Somerset  case,  the  memorable  de- 
cision that  "  the  moment  a  slave  touches  the  sacred  soil  of  Britain,  that 
moment  he  is  free." 

It  is  not  claimed  for  Samuel  Hopkins  that  he  was  the  first  to  protest 
His  title  to  fame  ^^  *^^^  name  of  humanity  and  religion  against  the  traffic  in 
as  a  leader.  human  fiesh.     All  honor  to  those  kindly  drab-coated  enthu- 

siasts in  England  and  in  America  who  had  already  exerted  themselves  to 
rouse  the  sentiment  of  Christendom  against  the  inhuman  business  !  His 
just  praise  is  that  with  little  or  no  knowledge  of  what  had  been  or  what 
was  being  attempted  by  others,  single-handed  and  alone,  in  the  midst  of 
a  community  deeply  involved  in  slavery  and  the  slave-trade,  he  put  every- 
thing at  hazard,  and  stood  forth  as  the  champion  of  the  oppressed  and  the 
pioneer  of  African  evangelization.  A  very  brief  sketch  of  his  labors  in 
this  direction  is  all  our  limits  will  allow.  Slavery  in  the  rural  districts 
of  New  England  was  a  mild  and  harmless  institution.  Little  or  no  dis- 
tinction of  caste  was  known.  The  slave  wrought  by  the  side  of  his  mas- 
ter in  the  field,  ate  with  him  at  the  same  board,  and  worshiped  and 
communed  with  him  in  the  same  sanctuary.  None  of  the  cruel  incidents 
connected  with  that  system  of  labor  in  the  Southern  colonies,  such  as  the 
slave-coflie,  the  driver,  or  the  auction  block,  were  ever  known  in  New 
England.  It  was  in  Newport  that  Hopkins  first  witnessed  the  traflUc  in 
men  reduced  to  a  system.  He  saw  the  miserable  remnants  of  the  "  mid- 
dle passage  "  disgorged  from  the  fetid  hold  of  the  slaver,  and  the  wild- 
eyed  barbarians  distributed  among  their  various  purchasers.  He  knew 
that  ships  fitted  out  by  Christian  men,  by  members  of  his  own  congrega- 
tion, were  carrying  thousands  of  such  victims  to  the  far  worse  bondage  of 
the  rice  and  cotton  plantations  of  the  South.  He  lost  no  time  in  unbur- 
dening his  conscience  in  the  matter.  It  was  in  April,  1770,  that  he  was 
installed  pastor  at  Newport.  Before  the  close  of  the  year  he  stood  up 
in  his  pulpit  and,  to  the  amazement  of  his  hearers,  denounced  in  unspar- 
ing terms  the  business  of  kidnaping,  buying,  or  holding  slaves.  All  the 
circumstances  taken  into  consideration,  it  was  the  most  heroic  protest 
against  this  iniquity  ever  uttered.  He  ventured  the  loss  of  all  things, 
of  friends,  of  living,  of  home ;  but  he  reaped  the  reward  of  his  fidelity. 

The  conscience  of  his  hearers  sided  with  the  truth ;  his  congregation 
stood  by  him,  and  he  went  deeper  into  the  battle  for  humanity.  He 
corresponded  with  Granville  Sharp  and  other  friends  of  the  slave  at 
home  and  abroad.  He  preached  again  and  again  on  the  subject.  In 
His antisiavcry  1776,  he  published  his  "Dialogue  on  the  Slavery  of  the 
books.  Africans."     Its  entire  title  is,  "  A  Dialogue  concerning  the 

Slavery  of  the  Africans,  showing  it  to  be  the  Duty  and  Interest  of  the 
American  Colonies  to  emancipate  all  the  African  Slaves  !  Dedicated  to 
the  Honorable  Continental  Congress." 

The  boldness,  force,  and  thoroughness  of  tliis  treatise,  together  with 


Cent.  XYII.-XIX.]  SAMUEL  HOPKINS.  561 

its  poiiiilar  method,  gave  it  great  currency  and  influence.  Nothino-  con- 
taining any  material  advance  on  the  argument  here  presented  has  ever 
been  brought  forward  in  the  whole  course  of  this  controversy.  Every 
plea  in  favor  of  the  system  was  anticipated  and  refuted :  the  pretense  of 
necessity  and  of  humanity,  the  arguments  from  Scripture  and  expediency, 
were  all  of  them  thoroughly  exploded. 

The  colonists  were  just  entering  on  their  struggle  with  the  mother 
country  for  their  rights  and  liberties  as  British  subjects.  Dr.  Hopkins 
exposed  with  great  severity  the  monstrous  inconsistency  of  rising  up  in 
arms  against  British  oppression,  and  continuing  to  hold  thousands  of  our 
fellow-men  in  a  far  more  intolerable  bondage.  He  predicted  that  the 
frown  of  God  must  rest  on  such  hypocrisy ;  and  when  the  cause  of  the 
colonists  continued  to  be  signally  prospered  he  was  obliged  to  resort  to 
the  explanation  that  it  was  due  to  God's  blessing  on  the  incipient  meas- 
ures they  had  already  taken  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade. 

Directly  after  the  establishment  of  American  independence,  a  manu- 
mission society  was  established  in  the  city  of  New  York,  of  which  sev- 
eral eminent  patriots  were  members,  among  them  Alexander  Hamilton 
and  John  Jay  ;  they  published  a  large  edition  (for  the  times)  of  this  pam- 
phlet, and  presented  a  copy  to  each  member  of  Congress.  Other  emanci- 
pation societies  were  formed  in  different  parts  of  the  country ;  and  while 
slavery  strengthened  itself  in  the  Southern  States,  a  strong  sentiment  be- 
gan to  be  formed  throughout  the  North  in  favor  of  its  early  and  entire 
abrogation. 

But  this  was  only  a  part  of  the  work  which  Dr.  Hopkins  undertook  ini 
behalf  of  the  African  race.  His  plans  reached  much  beyond  ^^  projects  Li- 
the emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  this  country.  If  not  in  ^^"*- 
advance  of  all  others,  yet  contemporaneously  with  the  foremost,  and. 
unprompted  by  any,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  extinguishing  the  slave- 
trade  in  its  source  by  evangelizing  the  African  continent,  —  the  same  idea 
that  animated  the  labors  of  the  heroic  Livingstone  in  recent  times.  He 
began  by  securing  the  freedom  of  two  native  Africans  of  hopeful  piety 
and  promise,  contributing  for  this  object  liberally  from  his  own  scanty 
means.  He  provided  also  for  their  education.  As  early  as  1773  he  suc- 
ceeded in  organizing  a  missionary  and  colonization  society  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  Christianity  in  Africa.  His  scheme  was  to  achieve  the 
freedom  of  as  many  blacks,  especially  native  Africans,  as  possible,  and 
to  plant  them  at  some  point  on  the  slave  coast,  with  competent  white 
men  as  their  guides  and  helpers,  until  they  should  be  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced to  take  their  affairs  entirely  into  their  own  hands ;  in  short,  it 
was  precisely  the  germ  from  which  the  American  Colonization  Society 
was  subsequently  developed. 

No  great  reform,  any  more  than  any  great  invention,  is  wrought  out 
at  a  blow.     There  is  that  general,  unconscious  sympathy  of  mind  with 
36 


562  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

mind,  even  across  broad  tracts  of  sea  or  land ;  there  is  that  common 
and  simultaneous  advance  of  thought  among  enlightened  nations  that 
leads  many  persons  to  be  occupied,  unknown  to  each  other,  at  the  same 
time  with  the  same  problems.  "When  at  length  brought  into  communica- 
tion each  adds  something  to  the  other ;  difficulties  are  got  rid  of ;  condi- 
tions necessary  to  success  are  supj^lied ;  the  mass  of  material  out  of 
which  the  perfect  contrivance  must  be  wrought  is  gradually  accumu- 
lated. Then  there  is  lacking  only  the  providential  crisis  and  the  organ- 
izing mind  to  select  and  combine  the  proper  elements,  and  the  plan  is 
perfected.  So  it  was  that  while  Hopkins  in  Rhode  Island  was  busy 
elaborating  his  scheme  for  introducing  Christian  civilization  into  Africa, 
Granville  Sharp  in  England  and  Thornton  in  Virginia  were  working  at 
the  same  problem. 

The  English  philanthropist,  aided  by  larger  pecuniary  resources  and 
greater  commercial  facilities,  was  first  in  the  field.  The  colony  of  Sierra 
Leone  was  established  in  1787.  Dr.  Hopkins  organized  his  society  in 
1773,  collected  funds,  and  had  his  first  native  missionaries  in  a  course  of 
training ;  but  the  country  was  poor  and  distracted  with  the  convulsion 
of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Of  the  two  candidates  for  the  African  mission 
who  were  sent  to  Princeton  to  be  educated  under  Dr.  Witherspoon,  one, 
Bristol  Yamma,  died ;  the  other,  John  Quamine,  entering  on  board  a 
privateer,  both  from  motives  of  patriotism  and  in  the  hope  of  securing 
means  to  purchase  the  freedom  of  his  wife,  was  slain  in  the  first  battle. 

Dr.  Hopkins  further  proved  his  faith  by  his  works.  In  1793  he  pub- 
lished in  two  volumes  his  system  of  theology.  For  the  cojDyright  of 
this  work,  which  had  cost  him  ten  years  of  labor,  he  received  the  sum  of 
nine  hundred  dollars  ;  he  gave  eight  hundred  of  this  on  the  instant  in  aid 
of  the  African  mission,  with  other  considerable  sums  at  other  times.  But 
it  was  not  till  he  had  been  nearly  twenty  years  in  his  grave  that- his  be- 
nevolent scheme  for  the  evangelization  of  Africa  was  successfully  carried 
out.  On  the  4th  of  January,  1826,  a  colony  of  Christian  blacks,  —  all 
from  Rhode  Island,  —  led  by  two  native  Africans,  Newport  Gardner  and 
Salmar  Nubia,  who,  under  Dr.  Hopkins's  influence,  had  gained  liberty 
.and  education,  sailed  for  the  Liberian  colony. 

The  immediate  impulse  to  the  modern  missionary  work  is  also  unques- 
tionably due  to  him.     The  father  of  Samuel  J.  Mills,  the 

Leader  in  Amer-  "^      .  .  „        . 

ican  foreign  first  missionary  sent  by  an  American  society  to  foreign 
shores,  was  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  the  Newport 
reformer.  Young  Mills's  attention  was  first  of  all  directed  to  a  mis- 
sion among  the  Africans ;'  and  his  earliest  public  employment  after  enter- 
ing the  ministry  was  an  agency  for  the  American  Colonization  Society. 

1  close  this  sketch  of  Dr.  Hopkins  as  a  philanthropist  with  a  single 
anecdote,  which,  though  often  published,  will  bear  repetition.  Being 
'  once  on  a  visit  at  the  house  of  his  distinguished  theological  friend,  Dr. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  SAMUEL  HOPKINS.  563 

Bellamy,  who  then  owned  a  slave,  Hopkins  pressed  upon  him  the  objec- 
tions against  that  relation.  Bellamy  defended  the  system  with  the  usual 
arguments.  Hopkins  refuted  them,  and  then  called  on  him  to  free  his 
slave  at  once.  Bellamy  replied  that  the  slave  was  a  most  faithful  and 
judicious  servant ;  that  in  the  management  of  the  farm  he  could  be 
trusted  with  everything,  and  was  so  happy  in  his  servitude  that  he  would 
refuse  his  freedom  were  it  offered  him.  "  Will  you  consent  to  his  libera- 
tion," inquired  Hopkins,  "if  he  really  desires  it?"  "Undoubtedly,"  re- 
plied Bellamy,  "  I  will."  The  slave  was  then  at  work  in  the  field. 
"  Call  him,"  said  Hopkins,  "  and  let  us  try."  The  man  came  at  the 
summons.  "  Have  you  a  good  master  ?  "  said  Hopkins,  addressing  him. 
What  could  the  man  answer  but  "  yes  "  ?  "  Are  you  happy  in  your  pres- 
ent condition  ?  "  How  could  the  slave  deny  that  he  was  ?  "  Would  you 
be  more  happy  if  you  were  free  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes,  massa,  me  be  much  more 
happy."  "  You  have  your  wish,"  said  Bellamy  ;  "  from  this  moment 
you  are  free." 

This  consistent  and  enthusiastic  zeal  for  humanity  in  the  subject  of 
the  present  sketch  may  be  traced  in  him,  as  in  other  good  men,  to  the  in- 
fluence of  his  religious  character.  Loving  God,  he  could  not  fail  to  love 
his  brother  also  ;  and  he  recognized  a  brother  in  every  suffering  fellow- 
being.  But  it  may  also  be  traced  to  the  principles  of  his  theology ;  and 
although  we  have,  in  this  brief  monograph,  placed  his  philanthropy  first 
in  order,  it  is  as  the  author  of  a  theological  system  that  he  is  far  best 
known  to  the  world.  Multitudes  who  have  not  heard,  unless,  perhaps,  in 
some  page  of  fiction,  that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  ever  brought  into  contact 
with  slavery  have  heard  that  he  was  the  author  of  a  theological  system 
which  taught  that  "  men  ought  to  be  willing  to  be  damned  for  the  glory 
of  God." 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  expound  in  a  few  words  the  principles  of 
his  theology.  He  was  a  Calvinist,  and,  as  he  believed,  Hopkinsian  the- 
one  of  the  few  consistent  and  unflincliing  disciples  of  that  o^ogy- 
school.  He  held  that  all  sin  consists  in  selfishness,  and  all  virtue  in  dis- 
interested benevolence.  Disinterested  benevolence  teaches  us  to  love  the 
whole  more  than  a  part,  to  love  the  aggregate  of  being  more  than  an 
individual,  even  though  that  individual  be  ourself ;  and  since  God  in  his 
infinitude  exceeds  the  whole  mass  of  created  being,  whatever  may  tend 
to  the  glory  of  God  is  to  be  sought,  no  matter  what  results  it  may  in- 
volve to  rational  or  irrational  creatures.  The  happiness  of  the  greatest 
sum  is  to  be  desired  by  every  virtuous  being ;  and  since  the  sum  of  hap- 
piness in  God  is  greater  than  in  all  that  is  not  God,  if  it  were  for  God's 
happiness  or  glory  that  the  entire  human  race  should  perish  in  hell  for- 
ever, this  ought  to  be  joyfully  acquiesced  in  by  every  loyal  subject  of 
God's  government. 

The  happiness  of  any  individual  is,  according  to  this  doctrine,  a  matter 


564  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

relatively  of  very  little  consequence.  A  race,  a  nation,  a  state,  even  a 
family,  may  have  claims  greatly  transcending  those  of  any  one  person ; 
and  for  a  single  man  to  set  his  own  happiness  against  the  happiness  of  a 
greater  mass  of  being  would  be  of  the  essence  of  selfishness.  Self-sac- 
rifice, therefore,  for  the  good  of  others  is  essentially  virtuous.  It  was 
under  the  imj^ulse  of  this  principle  that  Dr.  Hopkins  stood  forth  at  New- 
port alone,  in  the  presence  of  a  slave -holding  and  slave-trading  com- 
munity, and  ventured  the  loss  of  every  worldly  interest  to  plead  the  cause 
of  the  friendless  and  oppressed.  He  was  merely  making  his  own  welfare 
subordinate  to  that  of  a  greater  sum  of  being. 

In  no  conscious  inconsistency  with  this  principle,  Dr.  Hopkins  held  an- 
other which  might  well  have  tended  to  chill  his  philanthropy  by  recon- 
ciling him  to  the  existence  of  any  and  every  form  of  evil.  He  held  that 
this  is  the  best  possible  among  all  supposable  worlds,  and  has  been  or- 
dained as  such  by  the  benevolence  of  God.  Sin,  though  in  itself  an  evil, 
is,  relative  to  the  entire  system  of  the  universe,  good,  —  better  than  virtue 
would  be  in  its  place.  God  chose  it  and  ordained  it,  because^  He  saw  that 
by  means  of  sin  He  could  produce  a  higher  degree  of  happiness  to  being 
in  general.  The  existence,  therefore,  of  sin,  with  all  that  it  involves  of 
suffering  here  and  of  retribution  hereafter,  is  on  the  whole  well  pleasing 
to  God.  There  is  then  no  absolute  evil  in  the  universe.  Evil,  as  taught 
by  Mr.  Emerson,  is  "  only  good  in  the  making ;  "  an  epigrammatic  dic- 
tum which  precisely  expresses  the  spirit  of  Hopkins's  theology  on  this 
point ;  or  as  earlier  set  forth  by  Alexander  Pope, 

"All  discord  's  harmony  not  understood,  all  partial  evil  universal  good." 

This  tender-hearted,  benevolent  man  had  schooled  his  intellect  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  infinite  torment  of  untold  millions  in  hell  was  to  be 
rejoiced  in,  as  a  necessary  means  to  the  happiness  of  "  being  in  general." 
Dr.  Hopkins  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  absolute,  unconditional  decrees 
of  God  in  its  most  rigid  form,  and  carried  it  out  to  its  last  results  with 
remorseless  logic.  The  sins  of  all  men,  with  all  their  circumstances,  are 
expressly  decreed  by  God  as  better  and  more  pleasing  to  Him  than  vir- 
tue in  their  place ;  and  yet  men  are  absolutely  free  in  sinning,  and  will 
be  eternally  punished  for  the  very  sins  God  so  decreed.  Dr.  Hopkins 
was  a  rigid  Calvinist,  but  regarded  himself,  together  with  Edwards,  Bel- 
lamy, and  a  few  others,  as  a  reformer  and  improver  of  the  Calvinistic 
theology.  Holding  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity,  he  denied  the  impu- 
tation of  Adam's  sin  to  his  posterity.  Teaching  the  election  and  salva- 
tion of  only  a  select  portion  of  the  human  race,  he  denied  the  dogma  of 
a  limited  atonement.  Maintaining  that  the  unregenerate  ought  to  use 
the  means  of  grace  in  order  to  their  conversion,  he  yet  held  that  their 
using  these  means  while  unconverted  is  an  aggravation  of  their  guilt,  and 
peculiarly  hateful  to  God.     He  taught  that  every  child  of  Adam  is  born 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]       FRANCIS  MAKEMIE.  565 

loaded  with  the  guilt  of  damning  sin,  and  yet  that  all  sin  consists  in  vol- 
untary rebellion  against  God.  Those  modifications  of  the  Calvinistic  sys- 
tem which  were  introduced  by  Edwards,  and  elaborated  by  the  Newport 
divine,  are  known  by  the  name  of  "  Hopkinsianism." 

Dr.  Hopkins  died  at  Newport  December  20,  1803,  in  the  eighty-fourth 
year  of  his  age.  He  was  an  indefatigable  student,  writer,  and  preacher 
to  the  last.  Samuel  Hopkins  deserves  to  be  held  in  lasting  memory  as 
a  profound  tliinker,  a  great  theological  writer,  a  generous  and  self-sacri- 
ficing friend  of  mankind.  —  S.  H. 


LIFE  IV.     FRANCIS  MAKEMIE. 

A.    D.     ?-A.    D.    1708.       PRESBYTERIAN, AMERICA. 

To  be  the  right  man  in  the  right  place  was  the  happy  lot  of  Francis 
Makemie.  He  was  needed  by  the  Presbyterian  families  who  had  been 
settling  in  the  American  colonies  during  forty  years.  They  were  widely 
scattered  through  the  provinces  from  Boston  Bay  to  the  Savannah  River. 
They  had  their  well-read  Bibles,  and  their  oft-sung  psalms ;  their  elders 
holding  fast  to  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith;  their  healthful 
children,  whose  souls  were  girded  with  the  catechism,  and  their  morning 
and  evening  worship  at  home.  But  they  were  long  without  a  ministry 
and  a  church. 

In  1636,  the  Eagle  Wing  sailed  from  a  harbor  near  Belfast,  having 
on  board  about  one  hundred  and  forty  Presbyterians.  Their  leaders 
were  a  band  of  Scots  who  had  preached  a  few  years  in  Ireland,  been 
persecuted,  and  some  of  them  deposed  by  a  bishop  for  non-conformity. 
Two  of  them  were  the  famous  Robert  Blair  and  John  Livingstone,  so 
eminent  in  the  great  revivals  of  their  day.  These  pilgrims  had  built  the 
little  ship,  thinking  of  Him  who  said  to  the  Hebrews,  "  I  bare  you  on 
eagles'  wings."  They  now  looked  to  New  England  for  a  refuge  and 
field  of  labor.  But  the  mid-sea  storms  drove  them  back.  In  Latin 
verses  a  bishop  derided  the  return  of  "  the  Puritanical  Argos  without 
the  golden  fleece."  These  ministers  recovered  courage,  privately  taught 
in  Irish  neighborhoods,  or  openly  preached  in  Scottish  pulpits,  and  thus 
helped  to  rear  a  church  which  would  send  many  of  her  sons  hither  as 
the  founders  of  Presbyterianism  in  America.  One  of  these  was  young 
Makemie,  evidently  a  "  Scotch-Irishman,"  born  (we  know  not  when)  at 
Rathmelton  in  Donegal.  A  devout  school-master  led  him  to  a  jjersonal 
belief  in  Christ.  While  a  student  at  a  university  in  Scotland,  he  must 
have  listened  often  for  the  news  from  the  battle-fields  of  faith.  In  1669 
he  must  have  felt  an  interest  in  the  organization  of  the  presbyteries  in 
Ireland.     But  there  was  no  peace  yet  granted  anywhere  in  Western  Eu- 


566  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

rope  to  men  who  thought  as  he  did.  It  was  the  critical  age  of  Presby- 
terianism.  Its  si3irit  of  liberty  was  offensive  to  tyrants.  Under  the  later 
Stuarts  and  Louis  the  Fourteenth  were  Covenanters  and  Huguenots 
who  scarcely  found  a  door  of  escape.  Ship-loads  of  them  were  landed 
in  America,  where  they  were  sold  into  servitude  for  a  few  years  to  pay 
for  their  passage.  A  few  noblemen  sent  over  freer  bands.  They  built 
their  cabins  in  the  forests.  There  were  small  communities,  but  no 
strong  colony  of  Presbyterians  in  this  country.  About  1680  one  little 
flock,  near  Norfolk,  Virginia,  had  its  pastor,  who  was  soon  in  his  grave. 
A  few  ministers  came  and  went,  or  died  in  lonely  settlements.  The 
efficient  organizer  had  not  yet  come. 

In  1680  the  Irish  presbytery  of  Laggan  heard  a  renewed  voice  from 
America.  It  received  a  letter  from  Judge  William  Stevens,  a  member 
of  Lord  Baltimore's  council,  entreating  that  ministers  be  sent  to  Mary- 
land and  Virginia.  The  next  year  it  licensed  Francis  Makemie,  and 
probably  ordained  him  soon  afterwards  as  an  evangelist  for  the  distant 
Reaches  Amer-  colonies.  He  preached  for  a  time  in  Barbadoes.  About 
ica,  1684.  1684  he  began  his  labors  on  the  continent.     In  the  south- 

east corner  of  Maryland  there  were  three  or  four  "  meeting-houses,"  and 
in  the  one  at  Snow  Hill  he  organized  a  church.  The  brogue  of  his  kin- 
dred was  there.  An  elder  and  merchant,  Adam  Spence,  had  j^robably 
signed  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  Scotland,  and  a  descendant  of 
his,  reciting  the  traditions  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  years,  thus  writes  of 
Makemie :  "  One  generation  has  uttered  his  praises  in  the  ears  of  its 
successor,  and  you  may  even  yet  hear  their  echo.  Parents  made  his  sur- 
name the  Christian  name  of  their  chikben,  until  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Snow  Hill  it  has  become  a  common  one."  This  hill  was  his  base  of  mis- 
sionary operations. 

Maryland  was  remarkably  tolerant  so  long  as  Lord  Baltimore  gov- 
erned it.  Makemie  was  free  to  go  wherever  he  might  find  the  dispersed 
Presbyterians  and  organize  churches.  For  six  years  he  seems  to  have 
had  no  fixed  home.  He  resided  chiefly  on  horseback,  in  the  cabins 
where  he  lodged,  and  in  rude  pulpits.  Among  his  hearers  at  Rehoboth 
must  have  been  Judge  Stevens,  whose  letter  had  brought  him  into  the 
far  West.  Meanwhile  he  had  ventured  down  the  peninsula  into  Vir- 
ginia, whose  laws  and  rulers  were  far  from  tolerant.  Lord  Berkeley  was 
usually  severe  upon  all  dissenters  from  the  established  church  of  Eng- 
land. He  admitted  the  pressing  need  of  a  clergy,  sound,  earnest,  and 
pure,  but  he  did  not  favor  public  schools,  nor  the  press.  Makemie 
found  "  a  poor,  desolate  people,"  and  comforted  them.  Beverly  wrote 
thus :  "  'T  is  observed  that  those  counties  where  the  Presbyterians  are 
produce  very  mean  tobacco,  and  for  that  reason  can't  get  an  orthodox 
[Episcopal]  minister  to  stay  amongst  them."  Bettel"  tobacco  elsewhere 
brought  larger  salaries.  But  there  was  a  soil  for  spiritual  harvests,  and 
the  xmselfish  Makemie  sowed  and  reaped. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        FRANCIS  MAKEMIE.  567 

There  were  restraints  upon  his  liberty  of  preaching.  Relief  came 
from  two  sources.  One  was  his  marriage  with  Naomi  Anderson,  who 
brought  him  a  share  in  her  father's  wealth  and  extensive  lands.  He 
seems  to  have  resided  thenceforth  at  Accomac,  Virginia.  He  had  other 
dwellings,  and  had  store-houses  in  which  he  preached.  Of  salaries  to 
him  we  hear  nothing.  He  was  now  a  prosperous  ship-merchant  support- 
ing himself  as  a  missionary.  He  prepared  and  published  a  catechism, 
which  led  to  a  controversy  with  the  erratic  George  Keith.  His  other 
source  of  relief  was  the  Toleration  Act  (1689)  of  King  William  Third,  the 
eminent  champion  of  religious  liberty.  But  it  was  ignored  Labors  for  reiig- 
in  Virginia  for  ten  years.  If  Makemie  caused  its  recogni-  '°^  liberty. 
tion,  his  noble  service  deserves  high  praise.  The  tradition  is  that  he 
was  arraigned  for  preaching,  and  that  his  powerful  defense  before  the 
governor  prompted  the  legislature  to  enter  the  act  as  a  law  of  the  prov- 
ince. He  obtained  his  license  as  a  dissenter,  and  two  of  his  dwelling- 
houses  were  registered  as  the  places  of  "his  constant  and  ordinary 
preaching." 

He  was  gathering  more  flocks  than  he  could  feed.  Failing  to  secure 
help  from  Boston  he  went  to  England  in  1704,  and  there  published  "A 
Plain  and  Loving  Persuasion  to  the  Inhabitants  of  Virginia  and  Mary- 
laud,"  in  behalf  of  a  higher  civilization.  It  was  full  of  good  sense.  He 
notes  as  "  an  unaccountable  humour  and  singular  to  most  rationals,  that 
in  those  provinces  no  attempt  was  made  to  build  up  towns."  He  urges 
that  towns  would  benefit  lands  and  trade,  give  employment  to  the  poor, 
and  be  of  great  advantage  to  religion,  education,  and  the  general  wel- 
fare :  they  would  not  promote  drunkenness,  for  "  if  there  were  towns, 
there  would  be  stocks,  and  sots  would  be  placed  in  them."  A  London 
society  granted  him  funds  to  support  two  missionaries,  but  Ireland  fur- 
nished the  men.  In  1705  John  Hampton  and  George  Macnish  began 
their  work  in  Maryland. 

Philadelphia  had  become  a  new  centre  of  Presbyterianism.  In  1698 
Jedediah  Andrews,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  had  there  collected  the 
elements  of  a  church.  He  went  on  preaching  tours  in  Pennsylvania  and 
New  Jersey.  He  and  Makemie  were  kindred  spirits.  They  knew  how 
to  advance  the  cause  they  loved.  They  saw  the  need  of  further  organ- 
ization in  a  presbytery.  They  wisely  chose  the  place.  In  1705  Talbot, 
an  Episcopal  clergyman,  wrote,  "  There  is  a  new  meeting-house  built  for 
Andrews,  and  almost  finished,  which  I  am  afraid  will  draw  away  great 
part  of  the  church,  if  there  be  not  the  greatest  care  taken  of  it."  We 
infer  that  the  first  presbytery  in  America  met  in  that  house.  The  first 
leaf  of  the  records  is  lost,  but  the  second  page  shows  that  the  presbytery 
was  sitting  in  October,  1706,  with  Makemie  as  moderator.  In  it  were 
eight  ministers,  and  the  elders  of  a  larger  number  of  churches. 

In  1707  Makemie  and  Hampton  were  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where 


568  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Lord  Cornbuiy  had  no  respect  for  the  Act  of  Toleration.  He  forbade  the 
use  of  the  Dutch  church  to  Makemie,  whose  friends  secured  him  a  private 
house.  There  he  preached  "  in  as  public  a  manner  as  possible,  with 
open  doors."  Hampton  was  granted  a  church  by  the  people  of  New- 
town, on  Long  Island.  They  were  arrested.  In  the  presence  of  Lord 
Cornbury,  Makemie  argued  that  the  Toleration  Act  extended  to  all  the 
colonies,  and  that  the  license  taken  in  Virginia  was  good  in  New  York. 
The  answer  was,  "  You  are  strolling  preachers ;  you  shall  not  spread 
your  pernicious  doctrines  here."  "  As  to  our  doctrines,"  said  Makemie, 
with  admirable  dignity,  "  we  have  our  confession  of  faith,  which  is  known 
to  the  Christian  world ;  and  I  challenge  all  the  clergy  of  York  to  show 
us  any  false  or  pernicious  doctrines  therein.  We  are  able  to  prove 
that  its  doctrinal  articles  agree  with  those  of  the  Church  of  England." 
But  all  argument  was  in  vain.  The  accused  were  sent  to  jaU.  After 
inprisoBinNew  ^  long  trial  they  were  acquitted  by  a  jury,  four  of  whom 
York  city.  were  Huguenots.     But  Makemie  was  not  released  until  he 

paid  the  costs,  amounting  to  eighty-three  pounds !  This  injustice  was 
soon  denounced  by  the  legislature.  Makemie  preached  in  the  French 
church,  and  narrowly  escaped  arrest  in  New  Jersey.  At  Boston  he  pub- 
lished the  sermon  which  had  caused  his  imprisonment.  One  of  the  texts 
was,  "  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men."  The  Latin  motto 
meant  that  "  Prayers  and  tears  are  the  weapons  of  the  church."  Corn- 
bury  described  him  as  a  man  of  all  trades.  "  He  is  a  preacher,  a  doc- 
tor of  physic,  a  merchant,  an  attorney,  a  counsellor-at-law,  and,  which  is 
worst  of  all,  a  disturber  of  governments."  The  truth  is,  Makemie  had 
genius  and  versatility  of  talent.  In  his  valuable  library  there  were  many 
works  on  law,  and  by  his  study  of  them  he  contributed  no  little  to  re- 
ligious freedom. 

He  died  in  1708  at  his  own  home.  After  the  death  of  his  two  daugh- 
ters he  was  without  a  descendant  on  earth.  Much  of  his  property  went 
to  churches  which  he  had  nurtured,  and  to  the  relief  of  the  poor.  The 
cause  for  which  he  had  zealously  labored  was  not  widely  extended  in 
Virginia  until  the  spirit  of  toleration  grew  stronger,  new  emigrants 
settled  in  the  valleys,  and  the  work  of  Samuel  Blair  (1740),  and  that 
"  prince  of  preachers,"  Samuel  Davies,  was  blessed  with  a  wondrous  re- 
vival. We  cannot  record  any  marked  successes  in  the  Carolinas,  which 
he  visited.  But  in  that  peninsula  where  he  was  most  at  home,  we  still 
Makcraie's  title  ^^^  "  Makemie's  churches."  They  are  his  eulogy.  If  he 
to  fame.  jj^d  traveled  up  the  Chesapeake  Bay  and  the  Susquehanna 

River  to  Harrisburg,  thence  to  New  York,  and  thence  along  the  coast 
back  to  his  house,  he  would  have  measured  the  triangle  in  which  Presby- 
terianism  was  then  flourishing.  Within  those  limits  the  pioneer  was  soon 
followed  by  the  educator  and  the  theologian,  for  whom  he  had  prepared 
the   way  with  his  zeal,   diligence,  wisdom,  piety,   and  generous   spirit. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JON  A  THAN  DICKINSON.  569 

Without  sectarianism  lie  loved  his  church.  Dr.  Sprague  says,  "  His 
grand  distinction  is,  that  he  was  undoubtedly  the  first  regular  and  thor- 
ough Presbyterian  minister  in  this  country  ;  and  he  may  justly  be  re- 
garded as  the  father  of  the  (American)  Presbyterian  Church."  — W.  M.  B. 


LIFE  V.     JONATHAN  DICKINSON. 

A.    D.    1688-A.    D.    1747.       PRESBYTERIAN, AMERICA. 

The  year  in  which  Makemie  ceased  from  his  labors  there  came  into 
New  Jersey  a  young  man  who  fairly  represents  the  New  England  ele- 
ment, the  jDOsitive  theology,  the  vigorous  intellect,  the  independent 
thought,  and  the  educational  forces  in  the  early  Presbyteriauism  of 
America.  He  was  Jonathan  Dickinson,  born  in  1688,  in  Hatfield,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  reared  in  the  traditions  of  his  Puritan  ancestors.  At  the 
age  of  eighteen  he  received  the  diploma  of  Yale  College.  He  studied 
theology,  and  in  1708  went  to  Elizabeth,  New  Jersey,  with  a  license  to 
preach.  There  he  married  Joanna  Melyen,  and  reared  a  large  family. 
There  he  taught  young  men,  sometimes  j^racticed  medicine,  and  ceased 
not  to  labor  as  a  jjreacher  and  jjastor  until  he  died  in  the  sixtieth  year  of 
his  age. 

He  began  his  ministry  as  a  Congregationalist,  ordained  in  Connecticut, 
and  favorable  to  the  doctrine  and  polity  of  the  Westminster  Confession. 
He  had  charge  of  six  churches  in  and  near  Elizabeth.  They  seem  to 
have  been  independent  in  government.  Nearly  all  the  early  churches 
of  northern  New  Jersey  and  Long  Island,  except  the  Dutch,  were  colo- 
nies from  New  England.  Dickinson  was  soon  well  known  ^  j^g^  j^ 
among  them  and  their  pastors.  Most  of  them  went  with  lander. 
him  into  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Thus  were  Scots,  Irish,  and  Puritans 
harmoniously  joined  in  brotherhood. 

Ten  years  of  growth  had  so  enlarged  the  original  presbytery  that  it 
was  divided  into  four,  and  in  1716  a  higher  organization  was  effected 
under  the  name  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia.  "  It  was  the  openiug 
germ  of  one  of  the  goodliest  growths  of  Christendom.  Its  branches, 
high  and  strong,  reach  now  from  ocean  to  ocean,  scattering  more  and 
more  the  seeds  of  piety,  learning,  freedom,  and  social  order."  In  1717 
Dickinson  united  with  the  presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  He  was  subse- 
quently included  in  the  presbytery  of  New  York,  and  no  man  did  more 
to  unify  its  various  elements.  In  the  synod  he  was  a  leader,  highly 
esteemed  for  his  manliness,  spirituality,  powerful  mind,  uncommon  wis- 
dom, and  calm  judgment.  He  was  firm  in  his  beliefs  and  convictions, 
yet  forbearing  amid  differences  of  opinion.  His  pen  was  sometimes  in 
controversy,  his  heart  was   always  full  of  charity,  and  he  seemed  the 


570  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

model  of  a  Christian  gentleman.  In  him  were  combined  strong  thought, 
warm  devotion,  and  strict  integrity.  If  the  wicked  trembled  in  his  pres- 
ence, it  was  because  they  respected  his  apostolic  character  and  bearing. 
His  varied  talents  met  the  needs  of  his  place  and  time.  His  successes 
refuted  the  notion  that  a  man  of  versatile  powers  and  many  employ- 
ments cannot  be  efficient.  He  maintained  honorably  and  quite  contem- 
poraneously the  several  characters  of  a  profound  theologian,  a  mighty 
preacher,  a  diligent  pastor,  an  active  and  wise  churchman,  the  warm  ad- 
vocate of  missions  and  revivals,  an  eminent  educator,  and  an  earnest 
peace-maker. 

The  synod  had  its  controversies.  It  saw  the  need  of  a  constitution 
to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  church,  of  which  it  was  the  highest  court. 
For  this  purpose  the  members  generally  were  willing  to  adopt  the  West- 
minster standards,  except  the  articles  which  related  to  the  civil  power. 
But  the  question  rose,  whether  the  synod  should  require  a  personal  adop- 
tion of  the  Confession  of  Faith.  Many  were  unwilling  to  subscribe  to 
the  very  words  of  every  doctrinal  article.  Dickinson  led  the  opposition, 
but  went  to  an  extreme.  He  yielded  to  none  in  his  thorough  Calvinism ; 
he  zealously  advocated  the  doctrines  of  the  confession ;  yet  he  opposed  all 
creeds  drawn  up  by  uninspired  men,  lest  they  should  become  a  substi- 
tute for  the  Word  of  God.  He  thought  that  a  general  acknowledgment 
of  a  doctrinal  system  was  a  sufficient  bond  of  union ;  that  the  church  had 
her  true  defense  against  laxity  and  error  in  other  means  ;  that  she  should 
carefully  examine  candidates  for  the  ministry  in  Scripture  truth  and 
piety,  revive  the  ancient  discipline,  and  diligently  set  forth  the  pure  gos- 
pel ;  and  that  subscription  would  cause  disunion.  On  this  path  he  had 
few  followers  then,  and  he  has  none  now,  in  the  church  that  he  loved. 
But  his  conciliatory  spirit  was  manifest  five  months  iater,  in  1729,  when 
he  served  on  the  committee  which  reported  the  Adopting  Act.  It  was 
harmoniously  passed.  It  disclaimed  all  "  authority  of  imposing  our  faith 
upon  other  men's  consciences."  It  required  every  candidate  and  every 
minister  to  declare  "  his  agreement  in  opinion  with  all  the  essential  and 
necessary  articles  of  said  confession."  It  provided  for  the  honest  scru- 
ples and  the  mistakes  which  did  not  pertain  to  articles  "  essential  and 
necessary  in  doctrine,  worship,  or  government."  Thus  the  constitution 
was  adopted,  and  Dickinson  cordially  adhered  to  it. 

He  was  not  the  man  to  cherish  lax  views  upon  any  important  subject. 
He  had  no  sympathy  with  "  the  latitude-men  "  of  England  and  Ireland, 
who  held  positions  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  drew  their  salaries, 
while  they  rejected  her  essential  principles  and  met  in  coffee-houses  to 
talk  flippantly  against  all  tests  of  personal  faith  and  jjiety.  The  same 
mental  disorder,  in  the  guise  of  moderatism,  was  entering  the  church  of 
Scotland.  It  took  the  vitality  from  Christian  faith,  regeneration  and 
holy  living.     Personal   religion   melted   away  under  its  breath.     The 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JONATHAN  DICKINSON.  571 

epidemic  threatened  America.  Dickinson  was  one  of  the  most  earnest 
men  in  resisting  it.  While  pleading  for  the  "  Reasonableness  of  Chris- 
tianity," in  a  timely  volume,  and  for  the  right  use  of  human  reason  in  the 
study  of  divine  revelation,  he  w^as  strongly  averse  to  rationalism.  He 
would  not  divorce  liberality  from  truth,  for  in  holy  truth  genuine  charity 
has  her  greatest  power  and  highest  joy. 

In  his  scientific  mind  he  carried  a  definite  system  of  theology  and 
church  polity.  He  believed  them  to  be  thoroughly  Script-  Dickinson's 
ural.  He  defended  them  in  j^ublished  sermons,  pamphlets,  "^'^e  Points." 
and  small  volumes,  whose  terse  style  and  compact  arguments  adapted 
them  to  popular  use.  The  best  of  them  were  republished  in  Edinburgh, 
Scotland,  where  Dr.  John  Erskine  said  that  the  British  Isles  had  pro- 
duced no  wi'iters  on  divinity,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  equal  to  Dick- 
inson and  Jonathan  Edwards.  The  little  book,  often  reprinted,  with  the 
title  of  "  Dickinson  on  the  Five  Points  of  Calvinism,"  is  but  one  of  sev- 
eral treatises  on  the  subjects  involved  in  that  system  of  theology. 

The  ministers  of  that  time  did  not  forget  the  heathen  at  home.  Since 
the  days  of  John  Eliot  the  gospel  had  won  triumphs  among  the  red  men 
of  the  forests.  In  New  England  there  were  more  than  thirty  Indian 
churches.  Why  not  labor  for  the  conversion  and  civilization  of  the 
Indians  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware  rivers  ?  The  tribes 
were  friendly.  Dickinson  was  one  of  three  Presbyterian  ministers 
who  wrote  in  their  behalf  to  the  society  in  Scotland  for  propagating  the 
gospel  in  foreign  lands.  The  reply  authorized  them  to  employ  mission- 
aries. But  where  find  the  men  ?  David  Brainerd  had  been  a  shining 
light  among  his  fellow-students  at  Yale  College,  during  the  great  revival 
of  1741,  and  had  lamented  the  coldness  of  certain  teachers.  For  saying 
privately  of  a  tutor,  "  He  has  no  more  grace  than  this  chair,"  he  was 
required  to  do  more  than  freely  admit  the  fault  and  promise  to  refrain 
from  improper  censures.  He  must  make  public  confession  of  a  private 
remark.  This  he  refused  to  do,  and  he  was  expelled.  The  pleas  of  the 
Hartford  ministers  could  not  secure  his  restoration,  but  they  directed  his 
studies  in  theology  and  were  active  in  his  licensure  to  preach  the  gospel. 
In  November,  1742,  he  was  engaged  for  the  work  among  the  Indians. 
During  his  remaining  five  years  of  earthly  life  he  labored  among  them 
as  an  ajDOstle,  often  seeking  rest  and  health  in  the  house  of  Dickinson. 
His  toils,  travels,  endurances,  successes,  and  journal  of  spiritual  experi- 
ences form  one  of  the  brightest  chapters  in  missionary  enterprise.  His 
biography  by  Jonathan  Edwards,  to  whose  daughter  he  was  betrothed, 
was  read  in  the  British  Isles,  and  it  contributed  greatly  to  the  Christ-like 
spirit  which  ushered  in  the  grand  era  of  Protestant  missions  throughout 
the  world. 

Three  schools  added  powerfully  to  the  extension  and  vigor  of  early 
Presbyterianism  in  this  country.     In  his  academy  at  New  London,  Ches- 


572  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

ter  County,  Pennsylvania,  the  accomjDlished  scholar.  Dr.  Francis  Alison, 
won  high  distinction  as  an  educator.  In  the  wilds  of  Neshaminy,  about 
twenty  miles  north  of  Philadelphia,  William  Tennent  built  "  that  eagle's 
nest,  the  Log  College."  Out  of  it  went  those  two  famous  Samuels, 
Blair  and  Finley,  to  establish  other  schools ;  and  those  ardent  preachers, 

the  younger 

"  Tennents,  four  worthies  of  immortal  fame, 
Brothers  iu  office,  birth,  and  heart,  and  name." 

At  Elizabeth  was  Dickinson,  instructing  young  men  in  the  classics,  nat- 
The  father  of  ^^^'^^  scienccs,  and  theology.  The  expulsion  of  David  Brai- 
Princeton.  nerd   from  Yale  caused  a  general  indignation,  which  was 

favorable  to  his  enterprise.  The  Rev.  Aaron  Biirr  and  other  Presbyte- 
rian ministers  felt  convinced  that  they  must  have  a  college  for  their  own 
denomination.  In  1746  a  charter  was  obtained  for  "  Nassau  Hall,"  the 
original  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  It  was  Dickinson's  school,  en- 
dowed with  new  privileges.  He  was  its  first  president.  He  lived  but 
one  year  longer  to  impress  his  character  upon  it.  Then  it  wandered, 
like  Israel's  ark,  until  it  rested  j^ermanently  at  Princeton.  To  be  the 
founder  of  such  an  institution,  with  its  national  glory,  is  an  enduring 
honor. 

The  great  revival  which  moved  the  whole  realm  of  Protestantism  was 
an  unspeakable  blessing  to  the  American  colonies.  It  brought  out  the 
vitality  of  religion.  It  gave  fresh  life  to  all  churches.  To  them  it  added 
thousands  of  converts.  It  gave  evangelical  Christianity  the  force  of  a 
common  law.  It  prepared  the  jjeople  for  the  Christian  independence  in 
which  they  afterwards  asserted  and  won  their  free  nationality.  But 
with  the  good  results  there  were  some  evils.  A  strife  arose  concerning 
means  and  methods.  Whitefield  and  the  Tennents  employed  a  few  meas- 
ures which  history  has  not  justified.  The  eminence  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards in  promoting  the  revival  gave  him  a  public  right  to  j^rotest  against 
undue  excitements.  He  sent  forth  his  book  on  the  "  Religious  Affec- 
tions "  to  correct  those  emotional  fervors  which  came  not  from  the  Spirit 
of  God.  Thus  a  controversy  ran  through  the  whole  land.  It  was  not 
limited  to  any  one  body  of  Christians.  Certain  ministers  preached 
against  the  revival ;  others  replied  with  burning  censures  upon  Meroz 
and  all  who  came  not  up,  in  their  way,  to  the  work  of  the  Lord.  Thus 
fell  the  hot  rebukes  of  Gilbert  Tennent  in  his  famous  Nottingham  ser- 
mon. 

Dickinson  kept  his  soul  in  patience  and  moderation.  He  agreed  with 
Edwards,  and  also  gave  welcome  to  Whitefield,  for  both  were  "  laborers 
together  with  God."  It  pained  him  to  see  two  parties  in  the  synod,  di- 
vided upon  questions  which  calmer  times  would  settle.  They  differed 
mainly  in  regard  to  revival  measures,  the  classical  education  and  examina- 
tion of  candidates  for  the  gospel  ministry,  the  right  of  one  minister  to 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     JONATHAN  DICKINSON.  573 

preach  uninvited  in  the  parish  of  another,  and  the  constitutional  author- 
ity of  the  synod.  The  new  side,  or  the  New  Brunswick  men,  among 
whom  were  the  Tennents,  asserted  too  extremely  their  freedom.  The  old 
side,  in  which  were  Andrews  and  Alison,  was  charged  with  an  anti-re- 
vival spirit.  The  New  York  presbytery  took  conciliatory  ^  j^^^^gj^  ^^ 
ground ;  in  it  Dickinson  stood  as  a  peace-maker.  But  di-  u°ion- 
vision  seemed  inevitable.  In  1741  the  new  side  withdrew  from  the 
synod.  Dickinson  still  labored  earnestly  to  restore  harmony.  He  and 
his  presbytery  remained  in  the  synod  of  Philadelphia  until  1745,  when 
they  withdrew  in  a  fraternal  spirit,  joined  the  new  side,  and  with  them 
formed  the  synod  of  New  York  on  the  basis  of  the  Adopting  Act.  They 
were  certainly  true  Presbyterians.  The  extreme  leaders  of  the  new  side 
virtually  admitted  some  of  their  jjrevious  mistakes.  Their  zeal  became 
purified,  their  charity  expanded,  their  extreme  views  modified,  and  they 
were  as  earnest  as  Dickinson  for  a  thorough  education  of  ministers. 
When  the  venerable  founder  of  the  Log  College  was  in  his  grave  (Will- 
iam Tennent  died  in  1746),  they  brought  its  spiritual  coals  to  glow  afresh 
on  the  new  hearthstone  of  Nassau  Hall. 

During  the  seventeen  years  of  separation  the  old  synod  declined  from 
twenty-six  ministers  to  twenty-two ;  the  new  synod  increased  from  about 
twenty  to  seventy  ministers.  But  the  proper  spirit  was  not  rivalry :  it 
was  reunion.  For  this  Dickinson  was  earnest  so  long  as  he  lived.  No 
one  had  more  friends  in  both  bodies.  No  one  did  more  to  loosen  the 
bonds  of  past  controversies,  and  fix  the  minds  of  men  upon  the  vital 
principles  of  Presbyterianism.  Each  side  discovered  the  merits  of  the 
other  to  be  far  greater  than  its  mistakes.  Gilbert  Tennent  preached  no 
more  censorious  and  fiery  Nottingham  sermons.  Robert  Cross  no  longer 
was  regarded  as  unfriendly  to  revivals.  The  two  men  had  parted  as 
battling  cavaliers  in  the  disunion  :  they  came  to  be  neighbors  when  Ten- 
nent was  a  pastor  in  the  city  of  brotherly  love.  "  Its  civilization  capt- 
ured and  tamed  the  lion."  When  the  old  synod  sent  Dr.  Alison  and 
others  to  herd  the  scattered  flocks  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  they 
were  urged  to  promote  peace  and  unity,  to  avoid  all  party  spirit,  "  and 
to  treat  every  minister  of  the  gospel  from  the  presbytery  of  New  York, 
of  the  like  principles  and  peaceful  temper,  in  a  brotherly  manner ;  as  we 
desire  to  promote  true  religion,  and  not  party  designs."  Thus  time, 
grace,  good  sense,  and  work  in  new  fields  were  effecting  wonders.  Con- 
troversies about  measures  must  die  ;  it  is  the  greater  truth  that  lives. 

Both  synods  were  moving  towards  the  path  of  reunion  which  Dickin- 
son was  earnest  to  make  straight,  when  he  was  called  to  the  eternal 
home  (upon  the  7th  of  October,  1747).  Nearly  half  of  the  ministers 
of  1741  were  in  heaven ;  others  were  near  its  gate.  In  1755  the  old 
side  proposed  that  the  two  bodies  should  unite  "  as  though  they  had  never 
been  concerned  with  one  another  before,  nor  had  any  differences  ;  which 


674  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

is  the  truth  as  to  a  great  part  of  both  synods."  And  thus  they  did  unite 
in  1758,  in  Gilbert  Tennent's  church,  and  with  him  as  moderator,  joining 
their  two  names  in  one,  and  combining  their  forces  to  advance  the  king- 
dom of  Christ.  One  of  the  last  acts  of  these  fathers  in  this  joyful  ses- 
sion was  the  appointment  of  a  day  when  all  the  churches  of  the  reunited 
synod  should  pray  for  God's  blessing  on  the  armies  which  were  to  decide 
whether  their  land  was  to  be  an  English  or  a  French  domain.  It  was 
decided  the  next  year  by  the  British  conquest  of  the  Canadas.  Men 
have  thought  that  a  divine  Providence  then  assigned  to  Protestantism 
and  to  Christian  liberty  the  best  part  of  the  New  World.  Men  now 
think  that  if  it  shall  be  thus  retained,  there  must  be  more  union  in  heart 
and  effort  among  all  the  Christians  who  value  freedom,  law,  literature, 
the  public  schools,  and  the  Protestant  churches.  —  W.  M.  B. 


LIFE  VI.     JOHN  WITHERSPOON. 

A.  D.    1722-A.    D.    1794.       PRESBYTERIAN, AMERICA. 

This  star  was  sliining  in  a  distant  sky  when  first  seen  by  an  Amer- 
ican. That  prince  of  preachers,  Samuel  Davies,  was  appealing  to  the 
British  churches  in  behalf  of  the  college  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey.  He 
was  seeking  golden  sovereigns  and  not  a  president.  In  1754,  when  rest- 
ing at  a  Scottish  town,  he  made  this  entry  in  his  journal :  "  The  nobility 
and  gentry,  who  are  lay-elders,  are  generally  high-flyers ;  and  have  en- 
croached upon  the  rights  of  the  jjeople,  especially  as  to  the  choice  of 

their  own  ministers There  is  a  piece  published  under  the  title  of 

the  Ecclesiastical  Characteristics,  ascribed  to  one  Mr.  Weatherspoon,  a 
young  minister.  It  is  a  bui-lesque  upon  the  high-flyers  under  the  name  of 
moderate  men;  and  I  think  the  humour  is  nothing  inferior  to  Dean  Swift." 

In  1759,  Davies,  whose  eleven  years  of  brilliant  successes  began  the 
flourishing  era  of  Presbyterianism  in  Virginia,  removed  to  Princeton  as 
the  fourth  president  of  the  college.  He  lived  to  preside  over  it  but  six 
months.  The  chair  was  ably  filled  by  Dr.  Samuel  Finley  until  his 
death  in  1766,  when  the  trustees  looked  to  Old  Scotia  for  a  successor. 

John  Witherspoon  was  born  in  1722,  at  Tester,  about  fourteen  miles 
Descended  from  ^^^^  ^f  Edinburgh.  Ilis  father  was  an  accurate  scholar  and 
John  Knox.  influential  pastor.  His  mother  traced  her  lineage,  through 
an  unbroken  succession  of  ministers,  to  John  Knox.  She  had  much  of 
his  spirit,  firmness  of  opinion,  and  love  of  fatherland.  She  takes  rank 
with  the  devoted  mothers  of  Timothy,  Augustine,  Anselm,  and  the  Wes- 
leys.  It  was  largely  through  her  faithfulness  that  her  son  John,  proba- 
bly the  youngest  child,  became  a  steadfast  Christian  in  his  youth.  In 
the  public  school  of  Haddington,  he  evinced  a  powerful  grasp  of  mind- 


Cent.  XVII.- XIX.]       JOHN   WITHERSPOON.  575 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  in 
his  twenty-first  year  he  was  licensed  to  preaeh  the  gospel.  There  he 
was  the  associate  of  William  Robertson,  the  later  historian  and  leader 
of  moderatism ;  also  of  John  Erskine,  the  later  theologian  who  heard 
speeches  in  the  general  assembly  of  1796  against  foreign  missions,  and 
rose  indignantly,  saying,  "  Moderator,  rax  [reach]  me  that  Bible,"  and 
then  proved  that  the  gospel  was  intended  to  be  sent  to  all  nations. 

With  an  independence  of  thought  and  action  he  declined  to  be  the 
assistant  of  his  honored  father,  and  away  in  the  west  of  Scotland  he  set- 
tled in  the  large  parish  of  Beith.  He  married  Elizabeth  Montgomery, 
of  Ayrshire.  In  a  time  of  great  excitement  he  went  to  Falkirk  to  see 
the  battle  there,  in  1746,  when  the  young  pretender,  Charles  Stuart,  won 
a  victory  over  the  royal  army,  and  hoped  to  gain  the  British  throne, 
which  his  grandfather,  James  Second,  had  lost  by  an  unpatriotic  devo- 
tion to  Rome.  The  young  pastor  was  captured  by  the  rebels  and  held 
in  prison  for  two  weeks.  He  must  have  remembered  what  his  ancestors, 
such  as  John  Welsh  and  his  brave  wife  (the  daughter  of  Knox),  had  en- 
dured from  the  Stuarts.  When  released  he  duly  appreciated  the  civil 
and  religious  liberties  established  by  William  Third,  maintained  by  his 
royal  successors,  and  still  guaranteed  by  the  utter  defeat  of  the  rebels. 

But  he  saw  another  danger  to  religious  liberty.  In  its  rankness  it 
was  growing  into  an  extreme  liberality  of  doctrine.  It  was  reducing 
personal  faith  to  mere  opinion.  Too  many  pastors,  and  even  professors 
of  divinity,  were  not  pronounced  in  their  views ;  they  glossed  their  laxity 
with  the  name  of  moderation.  They  were  moderate  in  their  theology, 
their  preaching,  their  piety,  and  their  efforts  to  check  the  skepticism  of 
David  Hume.  Pleas  for  orthodoxy  were  ridiculed.  To  meet  all  this 
Witherspoon  published  anonymously,  in  1753,  the  "Ecclesiastical  Char- 
acteristics, or  the  Arcana  of  Church  Polity."  It  made  a  ^j.  thirty-one 
great  sensation.  It  was  universally  popular.  In  ten  years  ^''^^  Scotland. 
it  reached  a  fifth  edition.  Men  were  as  eager  to  find  out  the  name  of  this 
Pascal  of  the  north,  as  more  admiring  Scots  of  the  next  century  were  to 
identify  the  author  of  Waverley. 

While  suspicion  was  still  clutching  at  him  he  was  invited  in  1757  to  a 
church  in  Paisley.  But  the  presbytery  objected  to  his  settlement,  al- 
though his  recent  essay  on  justification  gave  him  high  rank  as  a  practical 
theologian.  The  people  brought  their  complaint  to  the  synod.  He  sup- 
ported them.  Without  denying  or  admitting  the  authorship  of  the  scath- 
ing and  irrepressible  book,  he  employed  his  fine  humor  in  showing  that 
the  writer  of  it  was  doing  good  service  to  truth  and  moral  honesty,  and 
his  masterly  speech  forced  his  opposers  either  to  confess  their  laxity,  or 
avow  their  soundness  in  doctrine.  They  yielded,  placed  the  call  in  his 
hands,  and  installed  him  at  Paisley.  The  next  year  he  was  chosen  mod- 
erator of  the  synod.     In  due  time  he  put  forth  his  "  Serious  Apology  " 


576  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

for  the  offensive  book,  avowing  the  authorship  and  still  defending  it. 
Assailing  the  evils  of  his  age,  he  raised  another  commotion.  When  the 
"  Tragedy  of  Douglas,"  written  by  Rev.  John  Home,  was  filling  the  Ed- 
inburgh theatre,  he  sent  forth  his  exposure  of  the  "  Nature  and  Effects 
of  the  Stage."  One  result  was  that  the  clerical  tragedian  retired  from 
the  ministry  and  devoted  himself  to  literature. 

In  his  fidelity  to  the  pastoral  office  Witherspoon  laid  bare  a  reported 
evil  in  his  own  parish.  Certain  young  men  of  the  socially  higher  ranks, 
thinking  that  infidelity  was  the  newest  fashion,  imitated  the  London 
clubs.  On  the  night  preceding  an  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
in  the  church,  they  met  and  turned  their  festivity  into  a  profane  travesty 
of  that  sacred  ordinance.  A  rumor  of  it  soon  spread  through  the  town. 
The  people  talked  with  abhorrence  of  "  the  mock  sacrament."  Perhaps 
the  reports  made  to  Witherspoon  were  too  highly  colored.  Laudably 
zealous  for  good  order,  moral  decency,  and  the  honor  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  sufficiently  prudent  to  wait  a  fortnight,  he  preached  a  sermon  on 
"■  Sinners  sitting  in  the  Seat  of  the  Scornful."  The  pointed  allusions 
were  clearly  understood.  His  discourse  went  out  from  the  printer's 
hand  in  an  Address  to  the  Public,  and  with  the  names  of  the  young  men 
accused.  They  prosecuted  him  and  won  the  case,  subjecting  him  to  a 
fine  and  to  expenses  which  greatly  embarrassed  him  until  he  was  relieved 
by  generous  friends.  Aiming  to  act  rightly  he  had  incautiously  stepped 
into  a  costly  school  wherein  he  was  taught  a  lesson  against  rashness. 

There  were  in  him  practical  abilities,  scholarship,  fortitude,  and  in- 
creasing greatness  of  soul  which  all  thoughtful  and  magnanimous  minds 
recognized.  The  University  of  Aberdeen  in  1764  conferred  on  him  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  divinity.  Among  his  publications  of  that  year  was 
his  celebrated  Treatise  on  Regeneration.  It  broadened  his  reputation. 
He  soon  had  calls  from  a  church  in  Dundee,  and  two  foreign  churches 
in  Dublin  and  in  Rotterdam.     He  declined  them  all. 

Scarcely  were  his  parishioners  assured  of  retaining  him,  when  a  voice 
Chosen  by  across  the  ocean  reached  his  ear.  The  College  of  New 
Princeton.  Jersey  had  elected  him  to  fill  the  chair  made  vacant  by 
the  death  of  Dr.  Finley.  The  patriotic  Richard  Stockton,  Esq.,  of 
Princeton,  who  was  then  in  London,  visited  him  and  thus  wrote  in 
March,  1767  :  "  It  is  a  matter  absolutely  certain,  that  if  I  had  not  gone 
in  person  to  Scotland,  Dr.  Witherspoon  would  not  have  had  a  serious 
thought  of  accepting  the  office,  because  neither  he,  nor  any  of  his 
friends  with  whom  he  would  have  consulted,  had  any  tolerable  idea  of 
the  place  to  which  he  was  invited,  had  no  adequate  notions  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  and,  more  than  all,  would  have 
been  entirely  discouraged  of  thinking  of  an  acceptance,  by  an  artful, 
plausible,  yet  wickedly  contrived  letter  sent  from  Philadelphia  to  a  gen- 
tleman of  Edinburgh I  certainly  have  succeeded  in  removing  aU. 


Cknt.  XVII.-XIX.]       JOHN   WITHERSPOON.  577 

the  objections  which  have  originated  in  his  own  mind.  Those  of  Mrs. 
Withers2)oon  I  could  not  remove,  because  she  would  not  give  me  an  op- 
portunity of  conversing  with  her,  although  I  went  from  Edinburgh  to 
Paisley,  fifty  miles,  on  purpose."  Still  further  he  wrote  quite  amusingly 
of  his  earnest  diplomacy  :  "  I  have  taken  most  effectual  measures  to 
make  her  refusal  very  troublesome  to  her.  I  have  engaged  all  the  emi- 
nent clergymen  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  to  attack  her  in  her  intrench- 
ments,  and  they  are  determined  to  take  her  by  storm,  if  nothing  else  will 
do.  This  has  a  favorable  aspect,  and  is,  at  the  same  time,  surprising, 
because  they  were,  upon  my  first  coming,  so  unwilling  to  part  with  her 
husband,  but  the  light  in  which  I  have  set  the  affairs  of  the  college  has 
made  them  perfect  proselytes." 

Nevertheless  the  good  woman  held  her  fortress  against  this  array  of 
clerical  forces.  She  did  not  yet  surrender.  The  doctor's  admirable  af- 
fection overcame  his  usually  indomitable  will.  The  college  trustees  de- 
spaired of  conquest.  They  chose  the  Rev.  Samuel  Blair  as  president.  But 
while  he  was  considering  the  acceptance  of  such  an  honorable  position, 
he  learned  that  Mrs.  Witherspoon  had  quite  repented  of  her  triumph, 
and  attained  the  heroism  to  leave  her  native  land  for  a  distant  home. 
Perhaps  her  heart  had  been  attached  to  the  graves  of  five  children ;  per- 
haps she  now  looked  forward  to  the  welfare  of  the  remaining  three  sons 
and  two  daughters.  She  was  just  the  woman  America  needed.  With  a 
magnanimity  that  touched  the  doctor's  heart,  Mr.  Blair  cleared  the  way 
for  the  reelection  of  Witherspoon,  who  accepted  the  office.  Twenty- 
four  years  of  pastoral  faitlifulness  entitled  him  to  publish  his  farewell 
sermon  on  "  Ministerial  Fidelity  in  Declaring  the  whole  Counsel  of  God." 

Thus  he  "  relinquished  home,  relatives,  friends,  and  the  advantages 
and  comforts  of  advanced  cultured  surroundings,  to  come  over  to  this 
new  land,  where  Presbyterianism  was  yet  in  its  infancy,  and  institutions 
of  learning  were  struggling  for  support.  He  came  to  accept  the  presi- 
dency of  Princeton  College  and  to  promote  the  cause  of  learning  and 
religion  here.  Such  was  his  purpose  alone,  but  unconsciously  to  him, 
the  Almighty  intended  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  his  usefulness,  and  make 
him  a  founder  of  the  republic." 

On  an  evening  in  May,  1768,  all  Princeton  was  in  a  fervor  of  delight. 
Nassau  Hall  was  brilliantly  illuminated.  The  residents  were  not  more 
happy  than  were  the  people  who  rode  in  from  the  surrounding  farms 
and  villages.  If  a  stranger  got  out  of  the  stage-coach  to  look  about  in 
wonder,  it  was  enough  to  say  that  Dr.  Witherspoon  had  arrived.-^  The 
whole  province  shared  in  the  joy.  Already  had  he  begun  his  work,  for 
in  London  he  had  collected  some  funds  and  three  hundred  choice  books 
for  the  college.     At  his  inauguration,  in  the  next  August,  he  delivered 

1  In  1868,  Dr.  James  McCosh,  as  genuine  a  Scot,  was  honored  with  a  similar  welcome  to 
the  same  presidency. 

37 


578  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

au  address  in  Latin  on  the  "  Union  of  Piety  and  Science."  To  promote 
that  union  was  his  steady  eflPort  during  the  twenty-six  years  of  his  presi- 
dency. He  looked  upon  every  student  as  having,  not  only  an  intellect, 
but  an  immortal  soul.  He  trained  young  men,  not  only  to  advance 
truth,  but  to  serve  their  country  and  live  for  God.  He  was  an  educator 
of  all  the  human  powers. 

Ever  willing  to  render  praise  for  all  the  wise  measures  of  his  prede- 
cessors, he  was  earnest  for  progress.  He  made  no  violent  changes  in  the 
college.  He  sought  improvement  rather  than  innovation.  He  quietly 
introduced  such  measures  as  would  more  fully  qualify  his  pupils  for 
active  life.  The  American  colleges  seem  to  be  indebted  largely  to  him 
for  the  method  of  teaching  by  lectures.  With  such  a  wide  range  of 
subjects,  he  could  hardly  be  a  specialist  in  his  very  profitable  lectures  on 
rhetoric,  taste  and  criticism,  moral  philosophy,  history,  and  divinity. 
Advantages  were  offered  for  the  study  of  the  Hebrew  and  French  lan- 
guages, in  which  he  was  an  adept.  When  he  assumed,  in  addition  to  his 
other  duties,  the  chair  of  theology,  his  salary  was  increased  to  four  hun- 
dred pounds.  He  visited  New  England,  and  the  churches,  particularly 
those  of  Boston,  contributed  about  one  thousand  pounds  to  the  college. 
Other  funds  were  donated  by  the  southern  colonies. 

To  these  various  engagements  were  added  the  duties  of  a  pastorate. 
The  Presbyterian  church  of  Princeton  was  under  his  care  for  about 
twenty-six  years.  It  was  blessed  with  a  remarkable  revival  of  religion, 
in  which  many  students  were  converted  and  prepared  by  divine  grace  for 
the  coming  "  times  that  tried  men's  souls."  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that 
great  spiritual  revivals  preceded  the  great  political  Revolution. 

The  mighty  movement  of  that  period  did  not  spring  from  one  creed 
His  zeal  for  in-  ^■lone,  nor  One  form  of  church  polity.  No  writer  can 
dependence.  justly  claim  for  any  religious  denomination  a  monopoly  of 
patriotism.  Let  all  lovers  of  freedom  be  duly  honored.  The  historian, 
George  Bancroft,  affirms  that  the  first  voice  publicly  raised  for  the  com- 
plete independence  of  the  colonies  came  from  the  Presbyterians.  As  soon 
as  they  heard  of  the  Puritan  blood  shed  at  Lexington,  they  were  willing 
to  make  their  resistance  a  revolt.  The  month  of  May,  1775,  was  remark- 
able for  their  assemblies  and  utterances.  Those  who  met  in  the  counties 
■of  Westmoreland,  Pennsylvania,  and  Mecklenburg,  North  Carolina,  com- 
mitted themselves  fearlessly  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  That  same  month 
the  synod  —  then  the  highest  court  of  their  church  —  sent  forth  a  pas- 
toral letter  drawn  up  by  a  committee,  of  wliich  Drs.  Witherspoon  and 
Eodgers  were  leading  members.  It  was  wisely  adapted  to  "  this  impor- 
tant crisis."  It  brought  the  practical  truths  of  the  gospel  to  remem- 
brance. It  urged  loyalty  to  the  king,  but  the  union  of  the  colonies ; 
mutual  esteem  and  charity  among  all  religious  denominations ;  vigilance 
in  social  government  and  morals ;  a  careful  maintenance  of  the  rights  of 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]       JOHN   WITHERSPOON.  579 

conscience ;  humanity  and  mercy,  especially  among  all  who  should  be 
called  into  the  field  of  war.  "  That  man  will  fight  most  bravely  who 
never  fights  till  it  is  necessary,  and  who  ceases  to  fight  as  soon  as  the 
necessity  is  over."  Thus  the  synod  stood  abreast  of  the  Continental 
Congress  in  the  advance  to  a  higher  freedom.  At  that  date  even  Wash- 
ington "  abhorred  the  idea  of  independence."  But  the  greatest  men  grew 
rapidly  in  those  days. 

During  the  long  struggle  Witherspoon  said,  "  When  I  first  came  into 
this  country,  nothing  was  farther  from  my  expectation  than  the  contest 
that  has  now  taken  place  between  Great  Britain  and  the  colonies."  In 
his  view  revolution  was  a  last  resort,  but  not  then  a  repulsive  crime. 
He  was  of  a  blood  that  loved  freedom.  His  heart  beat  warm  for  hu- 
manity. Against  the  "  divine  right  of  kings  "  he  placed  the  diviner  rights 
of  honest  people  and  of  enlightened  conscience.  In  an  age  when  republics 
were  limited  to  Switzerland  and  the  Netherlands,  he  dared  to  be  a  repub- 
lican. He  valued  all  the  relations  of  a  common  language  and  blood,  a 
common  religion  and  life,  between  the  old  country  and  the  new.  But 
these  only  made  the  British  injustice  more  glaring  and  the  oppression 
more  intolerable.  With  his  strong  convictions  of  right,  "  he  soon  com- 
prehended the  nature  of  the  dispute  and  its  blessings,  and  not  only  ar- 
dently espoused  the  cause  of  the  colonies,  but  early  believed  and  urged 
that  they  should  unite  for  defense  and  declare  for  independence.  Natu- 
rally he  found  himself  an  advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies,  and  the 
people  of  his  adopted  State,  seeing  in  him  the  qualities  necessary  for  the 
times,  called  him  for  a  leader." 

He  was  not  a  politician  in  any  other  sense  than  that  of  a  high-toned, 
honest,  unselfish,  Christian  statesman.  The  first  time  that  he  ever  car- 
ried a  political  subject  into  the  pulpit  was  May  17,  1776,  the  day  ap- 
pointed for  a  public  fast  by  the  Continental  Congress,  He  then  preached 
a  sermon  which  helloed  to  make  the  history  of  a  critical  period.  It  was 
upon  the  "  Dominion  of  Providence  over  the  Passions  of  Men."  All 
patriots  saw  marvelous  wisdom  in  it,  for  therein  he  affirmed  that  the 
cause  in  which  America  was  then  in  arms  was  the  cause  of  justice,  of 
liberty,  and  of  human  nature,  and  earnestly  exhorted  the  people  to  union, 
firmness  and  patience,  industry  and  economy.  Among  the  gems  that 
sparkle  in  it  are  these  :  "  He  is  the  best  friend  of  American  liberty  who 
is  most  sincere  and  active  in  promoting  true  and  undefiled  religion.  An 
avowed  enemy  to  God  I  do  not  scruple  to  call  an  enemy  to  his  country. 
I  do  not  wish  you  to  oppose  any  man's  religion,  but  everybody's  wicked- 
ness.    The  cause  is  sacred,  and  its  champions  should  be  holy." 

In  this  country  the  sermon  was  received  from  the  press  with  marked 
approval  and  great  effect.  Its  author  was  known  to  be  "  as  high  a  son 
of  liberty  as  any  in  America."  It  was  republished  in  Glasgow,  and  care- 
fully guarded  with  notes  by  editors  who  wished  to  expose  the  preacher 


580  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

'as  a  traitor,  rebel,  and  "  a  chief  promoter  of  the  American  revolt."  They 
wrote  that  "  the  scheme  of  independence,  it  is  said,  was  first  planned  by 
him,  and  success  to  the  independent  States  of  America,  we  are  told,  was 
a  favorite  toast  at  the  doctor's  table  when  entertaining  a  number  of  del- 
egates before  it  was  resolved  on  by  the  Congress."  They  were  glad  to 
publish  rumors  that  might  disgrace  him  in  Scotland ;  we  are  glad  that 
the  rumors  grew  from  the  simple  fact  of  his  being  one  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced patriots.  Heroes  like  him  took  their  place  at  the  front,  as  if  re- 
sponding to  the  call  of  the  hour  :  — 

"  God  give  us  men  !     A  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith,  and  ready  hands  : 
Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill; 
Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will; 
Men  who  have  honor ;  men  who  will  not  lie." 

In  a  few  days  he  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  Congress  of  New  Jer- 
His  work  in  ^^J'  ^*  Burlingtou.  In  it  he  sat  but  ten  days,  yet  this  was 
Congress.  time  enough  for  him  to  take  a  zealous  part  in  the  expulsion 

of  the  royal  governor  as  an  enemy  to  the  country,  in  ending  the  rule  of 
King  George  Third  over  that  province,  and  in  the  formation  of  a  new 
government.  It  was  not  a  time  to  discuss  the  right,  but  to  achieve  the 
fact,  of  a  revolution.  If  he  did  not  assist  in  framing  the  original  consti- 
tution of  that  State,  "  he  was  a  master  spirit  in  giving  it  an  impetus,  and 
in  securing  the  independence  of  the  colony." 

This  provincial  body  sent  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Richard  Stockton,  and 
three  other  delegates  to  the  Continental  Congress,  then  in  session  at 
Philadelphia.  They  took  their  seats  during  the  warm  debate  on  the 
question  of  American  independence.  They  found  that  many  members 
doubted  whether  any  delegates  were  empowered  to  vote  for  such  an  ex- 
treme measure.  But  these  five  Jerseymen  had  been  fully  authorized  to 
assume  this  moral  courage.  They  were  already  accomplished  revolution- 
ists. On  July  2d,  "Witherspoon  insisted  that  the  country  was  not  only 
ripe  for  independence,  but  was  in  danger  of  decay  for  the  want  of  it.  In 
one  of  his  eloquent  speeches  he  said,  "  For  my  own  part,  of  property  I 
have  some,  of  reputation  more ;  that  reputation  is  staked,  that  property 
is  pledged,  on  the  issue  of  this  contest.  And  although  these  gray  hairs 
must  soon  descend  into  the  sepulchre,  I  would  infinitely  rather  that  they 
should  descend  thither  by  the  hand  of  the  executioner  than  desert  at  this 
crisis  the  sacred  cause  of  my  country." 

Among  the  signatures  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  the  name 
of  one  minister  of  the  gospel.  It  is  that  of  John  Witherspoon,  the  only 
clergyman  in  the  general  Congress.  The  weight  of  his  opinions,  ex- 
pressed by  voice  and  pen,  was  acknowledged  in  every  session  during 
four  years.     Near  the  close  of  1779  he  resigned  his  seat,  lest  its  reten- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]       JOHN  WITHERSPOON.  581 

tion  should  involve  him  in  debts  which  he  could  never  cancel,  but  chiefly 
because  the  college  at  Princeton  was  in  desolation. 

The  students  very  generally  had  enlisted  in  the  war.  The  college 
had  been  captured  and  held  by  British  troojjs  as  a  barrack.  Washing- 
ton had  regained  it,  and  made  it  the  temporary  home  and  hospital  of 
patriotic  soldiers.  The  library  and  philosophical  apparatus,  which  Dr. 
Witherspoon  had  been  so  diligent  in  collecting,  were  sadly  injured. 
"  The  church  where  he  preached  was  also  rifled  of  its  pews  for  fire- 
wood, and  his  farm  was  plundered  of  its  stock.  It  cost  something  to  be 
a  patriot  in  those  days,  and  he  paid  for  it  dearly.  During  the  disper- 
sion of  the  college  the  trustees  met  once  in  May,  1777,  at  Cooper's 
Ferry,  ojjposite  Philadelphia,  and  authorized  Dr.  Witherspoon,  if  the 
enemy  removed  out  of  the  State,  to  call  the  students  together  at  Prince- 
ton, and  proceed  with  their  education  in  the  best  manner  he  could,  con- 
sidering the  state  of  public  affairs,  and,  if  more  students  could  be  col- 
lected than  he  could  instruct  himself,  to  obtain  such  assistance  as  might 
be  necessary.  As  soon  as  circumstances  allowed,  but  gradually,  the 
college  buildings  were  cleansed  and  rej^aired,  and  by  his  efforts,  with 
the  assistance  of  Professors  Stanhope  Smith  and  Houston,  the  institu- 
tion struggled  along  with  a  feeble  existence." 

In  1781  he  was  reelected  to  Congress,  for  his  constituents  felt  that  his 
wisdom  and  energy  were  needed  in  the  hall  of  national  councils.  His 
dress  showed  that  he  was  there  as  a  "  minister  of  God,"  in  both  a  sacred 
and  a  civil  sense.  The  calls  for  the  public  observance  of  days  of  fasting 
and  prayer  were  usually,  if  not  always,  written  by  him.  Many  of  the 
most  important  papers  on  national  affairs  and  measures  came  from  his 
hand.  Neither  his  courage  in  the  strife  nor  his  confidence  in  God  ever 
faltered  in  the  darkest  day.  He  was  six  years  in  Congress.  When  he 
returned,  in  1782,  to  his  more  professional  duties  in  college  and  church, 
the  sky  was  brightening  with  victory  and  the  promise  of  advantageous 
peace.  The  next  year  the  United  States  were  recognized  by  Great 
Britain  as  an  independent  nation.  His  visit  to  his  native  isle,  on  a  com- 
mission to  solicit  donations  for  the  college,  was  not  favored  by  a  people 
who  were  still  sore  over  defeat  and  loss.  Some  of  them  could  not  for- 
get the  Scotch  edition  of  his  sermon  on  the  Dominion  of  Providence,  and 
they  could  not  yet  believe  its  doctrine  of  national  liberty.  It  is  not 
known  that  he  was  invited  to  preach,  except  at  Paisley.  On  the  voy- 
age one  eye  was  sq  injured  that  it  became  sightless.  He  toiled  on,  lead- 
ing the  college  to  a  national  reputation,  reuniting  the  ties  between  the 
Presbyterian  churches  of  Great  Britain  and  America,  and  adding  to  his 
publications.  After  his  death  his  works  were  collected  in  six  or  more 
volumes,  and  published  at  Philadelphia  and  Edinburgh.  Not  then  was 
he  stigmatized  by  the  notes  of  an  editor.  There  were  admirers  abroad 
to  read  an  American  book. 


582  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  was  conspicuous  in  the  circle  of  eminent  men  who 
elevated  the  Synod  into  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Pres- 

Opens  the  first  .         ^,  i  t't  t    •  ••  i 

American  gen-  bytcrian  Church,  and  adjusted  its  constitution  to  the  state 
assem  y.  ^^  affairs  in  the  republic.  The  federal  constitution  was 
adopted  almost  contemporaneously  with  it.  He  opened  the  first  assem- 
bly, in  May,  1789,  with  a  sermon,  and  was  glad  to  see  Dr.  John 
Rodgers  as  the  first  moderator.  He  was  the  chairman  of  a  committee  to 
di'aft  an  address  to  President  "Washington.  In  it  were  these  golden  sen- 
tences, worthy  of  a  thousand  repetitions :  "  Public  virtue  is  the  most 
certain  means  of  public  felicity,  and  religion  the  surest  basis  of  virtue. 
We  therefore  esteem  it  a  peculiar  happiness  to  behold  in  our  chief  mag- 
istrate a  steady,  uniform,  and  avowed  friend  of  the  Christian  religion. 
....  We  shall  consider  ourselves  as  doing  an  acceptable  service  to 
God,  in  our  profession,  when  we  contribute  to  render  men  sober,  honest, 
and  industrious  citizens,  and  the  obedient  subjects  of  a  lawful  govern- 
ment. In  these  pious  labors  we  hope  to  imitate  the  most  worthy  of  our 
brethren  of  other  Christian  denominations,  and  to  be  imitated  by  them." 
The  reply  of  Washington  showed  his  high  appreciation  of  these  senti- 
ments, and  of  the  j^rayers  offered  for  the  country  and  for  liimself. 

When  the  next  autumn  leaves  were  falling,  the  excellent  Mrs.  With- 
erspoon passed  into  the  better  world.  The  doctor  was  left  quite  alone. 
One  son  of  great  promise  had  given  his  life  to  the  cause  of  liberty ;  the 
other  two  had  homes  in  the  South.  One  daughter  was  the  wife  of  Prof. 
Stanhope  Smith,  who  would  be  the  next  college  president ;  the  other 
married  Dr.  David  Ramsay,  the  historian.  In  1791  Dr.  Witherspoon 
wedded  Mrs.  Dill,  who  was  more  than  forty  years  his  junior.  Soon  after 
this  event  he  was  riding  through  Vermont  in  search  of  lands  which  had 
sadly  reduced  his  finances ;  his  horse  fell,  and  the  remaining  sound  eye 
was  so  injured  that  he  became  totally  blind.  Yet  with  a  secretary  he 
did  a  vast  amount  of  work.  He  still  preached  every  third  Sabbath  until 
his  days  were  almost  ended.  His  descent  to  the  grave  was  that  of  a 
patriarch  who  was  leaving  a  tribe  of  spiritual  sons  to  heed  his  noble 
example,  and  who  had  sublime  views  of  the  heavenly  land.  His  spirit 
crossed  the  border  in  November,  1794,  and  he  was  beyond  the  reach  of 
sin  and  blindness. 

Men  who  knew  and  loved  Dr.  Witherspoon  as  a  teacher,  associate,  or 
counselor  thought  him  worthy  of  full  description.  What  the  brush  of 
the  elder  Peale  did  for  his  manly  features  the  pen  of  Ashbel  Green  at- 
tempted for  his  character.  He  was  of  medium  height,  rather  corpulent, 
with  a  presence  almost  as  majestic  as  that  of  Washington.  He  assumed 
nothing ;  his  noble  bearing  was  natural.  He  did  not  think  about  it,  and 
yet  he  never  forgot  it.  He  tried  no  arts  of  Chesterfield.  The  plain  man 
in  dress  was  seen  to  manage  his  Tusculum  farm  with  dignity.  His  fond- 
ness for  agriculture  was  quite  equal  to  his  failure  in  it.     He  jocosely 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]       JOHN    WITHERSPOON.  583 

said  that  scientific  farmers  could  generally  assign  good  reasons  for  their 
want  of  success.     In  his  garden  he  won  richer  triumphs. 

Until  he  was  blind  he  usually  traveled  in  the  saddle.  The  students 
admired  his  dignified  horsemanship.  He  said  that  in  Scotland  it  was 
very  indecorous  to  put  a  horse  on  the  gallop.  He  never  did  it  there,  and 
only  once  in  America :  it  was  when  the  British  army  was  marching  on 
Philadelphia,  and  Congress  adjourned  to  Lancaster,  riding  thither  post- 
haste to  escape  seizure  by  the  enemy's  cavalry.  Like  Washington,  he 
regarded  punctuality  as  a  cardinal  virtue.  On  the  man  who  failed  to 
keep  an  engagement  at  the  hour  he  rarely  wasted  any  more  time  or 
confidence. 

When  he  was  roused  by  injustice,  his  indignation  was  that  of  gentle 
natures,  honest  and  tremendous,  but  not  many  suns  went  down  upon  his 
wrath.  His  temper  may  have  been  naturally  high,  and  flaming  at  times 
against  wrong,  but  it  came  to  be  subdued  by  reason,  grace,  and  vigilance. 
His  keen  satire  usually  fell  only  on  those  who  deserved  it,  and  then  to 
scourge  arrogance  or  vice.  His  wit,  fine  humor,  and  aptness  in  telling 
a  good  story  were  kept  for  his  more  intimate  friends  in  the  social  circle, 
and  for  those  who  enjoyed  his  hospitality.  They  did  not  appear  in  his 
sermons. 

Prayer  was  an  element  in  his  daily  life.  He  sought  to  walk  with  God 
and  to  commend  the  gospel  by  a  solid  example.  Scholar  as  he  was,  he 
was  "  more  a  man  of  genius  than  of  learning."  He  read  choice  books 
and  digested  them.  He  was  a  deep  thinker,  a  close  investigator  of  im- 
portant subjects,  a  treasurer  of  valuable  knowledge.  He  paid  the  drafts 
upon  his  information  at  sight,  and  had  no  mental  panics.  He  wrote  his 
discourses,  and  delivered  them  from  memory  with  such  grace  that  he 
seemed  to  speak  extemporaneously.  He  cared  little  for  the  merely  ex- 
ternal forms  of  oratory ;  he  manifested  the  heart  and  reality  of  it. 
When  it  was  known  that  he  was  to  preach,  he  had  large  and  attentive 
audiences.  His  object  was  to  set  forth  the  word  of  God,  to  make  plain 
the  way  of  eternal  life,  that  the  hearers  might  be  saved  and  glorified 
together  with  Christ. 

It  was  peculiarly  fitting  that  his  name  should  be  prominent  in  the  lit- 
erature and  honors  of  the  centennial  year,  and  that  the  Church,  whose 
spii'it  he  so  ably  represented  in  his  civil  career,  and  citizens,  whose  rights 
he  advocated,  should  erect  to  him  a  monument.  His  statue  of  bronze, 
colossal  in  size,  was  reared  in  Fairmount  Park,  Philadelphia.  There 
he  appears  in  the  picturesque  costume  of  that  olden  time,  —  the  ample 
coat  and  vest,  the  neat  cambric  neckerchief,  the  short  clothes  and  low 
shoes,  and  the  Geneva  gown  in  exceedingly  graceful  folds  hanging  from 
the  shoulder.  There  the  magnificent  statue,  for  years  we  cannot  num- 
ber, will  attract  the  gaze  and  evoke  the  admiration  of  the  millions  who 
will  pass  along  the  beautiful  Lansdowne  drive.  —  W.  M.  B. 


584  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

LIFE  VIL     HENRY  MELCHIOR  MUHLENBERG. 

A,    D.    1711-A.  D.  1787.       LUTHERAN, AMERICA. 

In  common  with  other  Protestants,  the  first  Lutherans  who  emigrated 
to  this  country  came  to  escai^e  persecution  at  home.  In  the  central  and 
southern  portions  of  Germany,  the  influence  of  the  Reformation  failed  to 
rise  superior  to  the  Roman  Catholic  power ;  so  that  whatever  cities  or 
districts  within  that  territory  had  received  Protestant  doctrines  became 
the  objects  of  Catholic  vengeance.  Many  and  severe  were  the  hardships 
and  sufferings  which  their  inhabitants  had  to  endure  for  conscience'  sake. 
Their  towns  and  provinces  were  dejjopulated,  their  property  was  confis- 
cated or  laid  waste.  England,  Holland,  and  the  northern  states  of  Ger- 
many offered  homes  to  the  fugitives ;  and  the  New  World,  which  was 
just  opening,  became  an  asylum  for  these  unfortunate  people. 

The  first  Lutherans  who  settled  in  this  country  were  from  Holland. 
First  Lutherans  They  Came  in  1626,  and  settled  in  New  York.  While  this 
in  America.  territory  remained  under  the  control  of  Holland,  they  were 
compelled  to  worship  in  private,  being  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  the 
mother  country  to  hold  public  services.  When,  in  1664,  it  became  a 
province  of  England,  permission  was  obtained  from  James,  duke  of 
York,  for  the  conducting  of  worship  in  public.  They  were  also  granted 
the  privilege  of  sending  to  Germany  for  a  pastor  who  should  minister  to 
them  in  religion. 

In  the  year  1644,  the  first  Lutherans  from  Germany  arrived.  Vari- 
ous detachments  came  during  the  remainder  of  this  century,  to  which 
large  numbers  were  added  in  the  first  half  of  the  next.  They  were  gen- 
erally from  the  Palatinate  and  other  states  in  which  intolerance  did  not 
allow  any  mode  of  worship  contrary  to  the  established  religion.  These 
early  emigrants,  who  were  fidly  consecrated  to  a  holy  and  pious  life, 
could  not  be  driven  into  submission  against  their  convictions. 

In  1733,  the  Salzburgers,  a  body  of  Lutherans  called  after  Salzburg, 
their  native  country,  came  to  Georgia,  settling  about  twenty  miles  above 
Savannah.  Thirty  thousand  of  these  people  had  been  driven  from  their 
homes  by  persecution.  Georgia  had  just  been  chartered  as  a  colony,  and 
it  had  been  stipulated  that  it  should  become  the  asylum  of  "  distressed 
Salzburgers  and  other  Protestants."  The  "  trustees  "  of  the  colony  and 
"  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  Christian  Knowledge,"  one  of  the 
noble  institutions  of  England,  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  wandering 
Salzburgers.  They  invited  them  to  find  homes  in  the  New  World,  and 
furnished  them  with  passage  money ;  and  upon  the  arrival  of  the  emi- 
grants they  gave  to  each  one  a  certain  amount  of  land,  with  the  privi- 
leges of  English  citizenship.     These  people  were  under  the  spiritual 


Cent.  XVII. -XIX.]     HENRY  MELCHIOR   MUHLENBERG.       585 

guidance   of  several  devoted  pastors,  and  they  became  noted  for  their 
piety,  faithfulness,  and  prosperity. 

Numerous  detachments  of  Lutherans  came,  in  like  manner,  to  nearly 
every  colony  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  Pennsylvania,  how-  Lutherans  in 
ever,  was  the  province  which  attracted  the  largest  number.  Pennsylvania. 
Its  climate  was  genial ;  so  was  the  welcome  extended  by  William  Penn. 
He  threw  wide  open  the  doors  of  his  colony,  and  invited  all  men  "  who 
believed  in  God  and  lived  jDcaceably  with  their  neighbors,  to  come  and 
find  a  home." 

Many  years  intervened  between  the  arrival  of  the  first  Lutheran  emi- 
grants and  that  of  the  first  Lutheran  ministers,  except  in  the  Swedish  set- 
tlement in  New  Jersey.  The  Holland  Lutherans  were  in  this  country 
nearly  fifty  years  before  they  had  among  them  any  one  authorized  to 
exercise  the  functions  of  the  ministerial  office.  Jacob  Fabricius,  who 
arrived  and  began  his  labors  in  1669,  was  their  first  pastor.  Previous  to 
his  coming,  they  had  depended  altogether  on  lay  supervision  and  instruc- 
tion. 

The  time  between  the  arrival  of  Lutherans  in  Pennsylvania  and  the 
coming  of  Muhlenberg,  the  first  minister,  was  almost  a  hundred  years. 
As  his  training  and  his  coming  grew  out  of  one  of  the  most  important 
movements  that  ever  affected  the  Protestant  church  in  Germany,  it  will 
be  profitable  to  revert  to  it. 

Spener  and  Francke  produced  in  their  country  a  genuine  revival  of 
piety.-^  They  saw  the  dead  formalism  into  which  the  church  of  the 
seventeenth  century  had  fallen,  and  labored  to  arouse  her  from  her 
lethargy.  They  urged  the  necessity  of  regeneration,  and  of  true  piety 
in  both  the  ministry  and  the  laity.  They  insisted  on  the  better  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath  day  and  the  duty  of  all  Christians  to  labor  for 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

Spener  based  his  theology  on  the  Bible  as  confirmed  and  explained  by 
personal  experience,  while  the  orthodox  party  based  its  theology  on  the 
Bible  as  explained  by  the  symbolical  books.  Orthodoxy  regarded  the 
observance  of  the  "Word  and  of  the  sacraments  as  the  basis  of  the  church, 
while  Pietism,  as  the  views  of  Spener  were  called,  declared  the  church 
to  exist  in  its  true  believers. 

The  methods  of  church  work  which  Spener  and  Francke  practiced  were 
revolutionary.  The  former  instituted  classes  for  instructing  the  young ; 
he  established  prayer-meetings  and  conventicles  for  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  latter  became  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Halle, 
where  he  began  to  lecture  to  his  students  in  theology  on  the  different 
books  of  the  Bible,  instead  of  the  various  forms  of  philosophy,  that  he 
might  prepare  them  to  make  practical  exj)Ositions  of  divine  truth.  Both 
preached  against  worldly  dissipation  and  amusements,  against  dancing, 

1  See  pp.  400-420. 


586  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

against  the  theatre,  and  against  card-playing.  Under  their  preaching  and 
influence  missions  were  established.  The  University  of  Halle  sent  mis- 
sionaries to  every  part  of  the  world.  Out  of  such  a  spirit  was  the  Amer- 
ican Lutheran  Church  born,  for  its  founder,  Henry  Melchior  Muhlen- 
berg, was  a  disciple  of  Francke,  and  was  trained  under  his  influence. 

Muhlenberg  was  born  in  1711.  His  parents  were  poor.  The  father 
Muhlenberg  ^^^^  whcn  liis  SOU  was  but  twclvc  years  of  age.  The  boy 
guided  for  work,  early  studied  the  German  and  Latin  languages,  and  was  dil- 
igently instructed  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion.  After  the 
death  of  his  father,  he  was  compelled  to  engage  in  manual  labor  until 
he  reached  his  twenty-first  year.  He  now  applied  himself  to  the  study 
of  Latin,  Greek,  French,  and  Hebrew.  He  attended  the  University  of 
Gottingen  at  twenty-four.  Though  confirmed  at  twelve,  his  real  religious 
experience  did  not  commence  until  this  period.  When  awakened  and 
converted  he  at  once  gave  himself  up  to  the  solemn  duties  of  a  Christian 
life.  In  connection  with  some  fellow-students  he  gathered  together  the 
poor,  neglected  children  about  the  streets,  and  taught  them  the  element- 
ary branches  of  learning  and  religion.  Tliis  was  regarded  as  an  irreg- 
ularity by  some  of  the  clergy  and  school-masters,  and  the  young  men  were 
brought  to  trial.     Being  ably  defended  they  were  acquitted. 

In  1738,  Muhlenberg  was  sent  to  Halle,  where  he  "had  committed  to 
him  the  instruction  of  the  primary  classes,  whence  he  was  regularly  trans- 
ferred, until  he  had  passed  through  all  the  departments  successively,  and 
was  finally  placed  in  charge  of  the  classes  in  theology,  Hebrew,  and 
Greek."  At  the  University  of  Halle  he  became  fully  imbued  with  the 
spirit  and  devotion  of  the  Pietists. 

In  1741,  Dr.  Francke  was  requested  by  the  Germans  in  Pennsylvania 
to  send  them  a  minister.  The  mission  was  proposed  to  Muhlenberg, 
who,  after  due  consideration,  accepted  it.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1741, 
he  resigned  his  position  at  home,  and  by  the  13th  of  June,  1742,  he  was 
Reaches  Amer-  ^^'^  ^^^  ^^1  ^^  *^^®  Western  World.  He  sailed  to  Charleston, 
i'^a-  South  Carolina,  for  the  purpose  of  examining  the  condition 

of  the  Lutheran  church  in  Georgia,  for  he  had  been  made  the  overseer 
of  all  the  German  Lutheran  settlements  in  this  country,  and  it  was  part 
of  his  mission  to  report  year  by  year  the  welfare  and  progress  of  the 
church  to  the  University  of  Halle.  He  spent  a  month  with  the  Salz- 
burgers,  and  then  set  out  in  a  sloop  for  Philadelphia,  where  he  arrived 
in  the  latter  part  of  November,  1742. 

His  coming  was  most  opportune.  There  were  none  to  minister  to  the 
religious  wants  of  the  people,  except  several  self-constituted  pastors,  who 
were  men  without  education  and  without  piety.  Though  the  first  Ger- 
mans in  America  were  men  of  earnest  devotion,  they  could  not,  without 
religious  advisers,  retain  their  piety,  or  transmit  it  to  their  children.  They 
consequently  declined  rapidly  in  spirituality.     When  Muhlenberg  came 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     HENRY  MELCHIOR  MUHLENBERG.        587 

he  found  their  religious  condition  most  deplorable.  There  were  no 
churches  and  no  school-houses,  save  one  building  in  New  Hanover,  and 
that  too  poor  for  occupancy.  He  at  once  undertook  to  build  churches 
and  school-houses  for  the  religious  and  secular  instruction  of  both  old 
and  young.  Very  few  of  the  young  could  read,  and  teachers  of  suitable 
character  and  qualifications  could  not  be  procured.  So  Mulilenberg  be- 
came both  pastor  and  teacher.  "  Necessity,"  he  says,  "  has  compelled 
me  to  become  a  teacher  of  children.  One  week  I  keep  school  in  Phila- 
delphia, the  next  in  Providence,  and  the  third  in  New  Hanover ;  and  I 
think  God's  grace  is  visiting  us.  It  was,  however,  high  time  that  I  should 
come.  If  affairs  had  remained  a  few  years  longer  in  the  same  state  in 
which  I  found  them,  our  poor  Lutherans  would  have  been  scattered,  or 
turned  over  to  heathenism."  Describing  the  religious  con-  jjjg  picture  of 
dition  of  the  country,  he  says,  "  Atheists,  deists,  and  natu-  America, 
ralists  are  to  be  met  with  everywhere.  I  think  that  there  is  not  a  sect  in 
the  Chi'istian  world  that  has  not  followers  here.  You  meet  with  persons 
from  almost  every  nation  in  the  world.  God  and  his  Word  are  openly 
blasphemed.  Here  are  thousands  who  by  birth,  education,  and  confir- 
mation ought  to  belong  to  our  church,  but  they  are  scattered  to  the  four 
winds  of  heaven.  The  spiritual  state  of  our  people  is  so  wretched  as  to 
cause  us  to  shed  tears  in  abundance.  The  young  people  are  grown  up 
without  instruction  and  without  knowledge  of  religion,  and  are  turning 
to  heathenism."  This  sad  condition  did  not  appal  the  heart  of  our  noble 
missionary,  or  make  him  sigh  for  the  more  desirable  field  he  had  left,  but 
he  set  about  energetically  to  supplant  this  moral  desolation  with  spirit- 
ual life  and  activity. 

He  was  elected  pastor  of  three  churches,  one  at  Philadelphia,  one  at 
New  Hanover,  and  one  at  New  Providence.  These  were  almost  forty 
miles  distant  from  each  other.  For  two  and  a  half  years  pastor  Muhlen- 
berg was  alone  in  his  work  in  Pennsylvania,  but  in  1745  other  ministers 
arrived  from  Halle,  who  came  at  the  earnest  request  of  the  missionary 
and  the  jseople.  New  congregations  were  at  once  organized,  the  circle 
was  enlarged,  and  efforts  were  made  to  reach  every  German  community. 
Muhlenberg  was  the  leading  spirit  in  every  movement ;  his  eye  was  on 
every  church ;  his  counsel  was  sought  in  every  difficulty.  The  congre- 
gation at  New  York  having  become  divided,  he  was  sent  for  to  bring 
about  a  reconciliation.  He  made  them  a  visit,  proposed  a  solution  of 
their  troubles,  and  succeeded  in  restoring  peace  and  harmony. 

The  work  of  bringing  the  scattered  Germans  under  religious  training 
was  so  well  carried  on  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  eight  years  after  the  arrival  of  the  first  missionary, 
there  were  eight  ministers  laboring  in  Pennsylvania,  having  twenty-three 
organized  churches  under  their  charge. 

Muhlenberg  never  consulted  his  own  ease  in  his  work.     As  soon  as  he 


588  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

was  relieved  at  one  point  he  sought  another.  He  traveled  far  and  wide, 
responding  to  the  call  of  duty  among  the  churches  from 
activity.  New  York  to  Georgia.     He  preached  in  churches,  in  pri- 

vate houses,  in  the  open  air,  and  carried  the  gospel  from  house  to  house 
in  pastoral  visitation.  He  adapted  himself  to  the  wants  and  tastes  of 
the  people.  He  was  able  to  preach  in  either  the  German,  Dutch,  or 
English  language,. sometimes  using  all  three  the  same  day.  Had  his 
wise  policy  been  pursued  by  his  immediate  successors,  so  much  of  the 
work  performed  by  him  and  his  co-laborers  would  not  have  been  lost  to 
the  church  of  which  they  were  members ;  but  those  coming  after  them, 
confining  their  ministrations  to  the  German  language,  were  not  able  to 
hold  those  who  were  growing  up  under  the  influence  and  training  of 
the  English  language  and  customs. 

Every  means  by  which  piety  could  be  cultivated  was  practiced  by  pas- 
tor Muhlenberg.  Immediately  on  his  arrival  in  this  country  he  organized 
prayer-meetings  for  the  edification  of*  the  church ;  these  he  could  seldom 
attend.  They  were  held  often,  three  times  each  week,  some  pious  lay- 
men presiding.  Prayers  were  offered,  the  Bible  and  books  of  religious 
value  were  read.  So  marked  were  these  meetings  that  wicked  men  some- 
times made  it  an  object  to  disturb  them  by  casting  stones  against  the  door, 
His  catholicity  ^^^  ^J  reviling  the  worshipers  as  pietists  and  hypocrites, 
of  Bpirit.  jje  Yras  a  promoter  of  revivals  of  religion.     He  and  Dr. 

Helmuth  speak  of  "  protracted  meetings  "  with  great  satisfaction.  The 
interest  which  the  people  took  in  their  preaching  during  such  efforts  was 
manifested  by  the  "  audible  weeping  of  the  congregation,  and  the  advice 
sought  in  private  concerning  the  salvation  of  their  souls." 

Muhlenberg  had  no  stated  forms  h^  which  worship  should  be  invaria- 
bly conducted.  When  he  used  a  liturgical  service  it  was  short  and  sim- 
ple, but  he  believed  that  a  minister  should  be  bound  to  no  system.  In 
all  his  services  his  object  was  to  lead  men  to  Christ,  so  he  adopted  any 
method  that  would  bring  about  the  desired  end.  His  preaching  was  plain 
and  simple  •  he  used  both  the  formal  discourse  and  the  more  practical 
method  of  question  and  answer.  Sometimes,  immediately  after  the  ser- 
mon, the  congregation  was  questioned  on  the  leading  points  presented 
in  it ;  they  were  requested  to  find  the  proof  texts,  which  led  them  to 
bring  their  Bibles  to  church.  The  afternoon  hour  was  frequently  em- 
ployed in  question  and  answer,  the  subject  being  either  the  morning 
sermon  or  some  other  portion  of  the  Bible,  or  the  catechism.  He  ex- 
pressed his  notion  of  preaching  as  follows  :  "  In  our  discourses  we  ought 
to  make  no  ostentatious  display  of  learning,  but  study  simplicity.  We 
should  neither  strike  into  the  air,  nor  employ  low  and  vulgar  expressions ; 
not  introduce  too  much  matter  into  a  sermon,  but  discuss  the  subject  fully, 
and  apply  it  to  the  heart.  Our  sermons  should  not  be  dry,  but  practical. 
Religion  should  be  presented  not  as  a  burden,  but  as  a  pleasure.     Let  us 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     HENRY  MELCHIOR  MUHLENBERG.        589 

sow  with  tears,  let  us  aim  at  the  edification  of  each  individual  soul,  and 
give  heed  to  ourselves  and  to  our  doctrines." 

Muhlenberg,  with  his  co-workers,  was  never  satisfied  until  he  had 
brought  those  under  his  instruction  into  full  Christian  experience.  He 
everywhere  insisted  on  rigid  discipline.  His  strict  views  concerning  the 
sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  in  many  places  brought  him  into  trouble  with 
those  who  looked  upon  it  as  a  day  for  general  recreation  and  amusement. 
Of  the  general  results  of  their  labors  he  and  his  associates  in  the  min- 
istry declare  that  with  the  middle-aged,  who  had  grown  up  without  in- 
struction, they  were  unsuccessful,  but  that  from  the  young  they  derived 
great  encouragement. 

A  serious  difficulty  had  arisen  among  the  pastors  who  labored  amid 
the  Lutherans  of  Georgia.  Muhlenberg  made  a  journey  to  that  prov- 
ince in  1774,  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  reconciliation.  He  met 
pastors  and  people,  and  exhorted  them  to  mutual  forbearance  and  for- 
giveness. He  finally  obtained  an  agreement  that  they  would  bury  all 
former  contentions  and  offenses.  On  his  return  from  this  meeting  he 
wrote  the  following  words :  "I  was  so  tortured  and  worried  in  body  and 
spirit  that  I  had  to  lie  down.  O  Lord,  how  much  has  not  the  enemy  of 
man  already  won,  if  he  can  effect  a  breach  between  ministers  and  col- 
leagues in  a  church  !  What  hateful  mischief  he  does  to  the  sheep  when 
he  has  disarmed  the  shepherds  !  How  despised  is  the  holy  office  and  its 
dignity  in  the  sight  of  Hamites  and  Canaanites,  when  they  have  seen  the 
nakedness  of  the  fathers,  and  scoff  at  it !  " 

Li  1748  was  held  the  first  conference  of  Lutheran  ministers  in  Penn- 
sylvania.    Six  were  present,  with  a  correspondinor  number 

X  o  Fr6si(l6S  over 

of  laymen.     As  the  leading  spirit,  Muhlenberg  was  made   the  first  con- 
president.     At  this  meeting,  John  V.  Kurtz  was  set  apart 
to  the  gosjjel  ministry,  being  the  first  Lutheran  minister  ordained  in  this 
country. 

Conferences  or  synodical  meetings  continued  to  be  held  with  more  or 
less  regularity  by  the  fathers  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  These  meetings 
were  turned  to  great  profit.  Muhlenberg  speaks  of  one  in  this  lan- 
guage :  "  After  the  close  of  public  worship  all  the  ministers  convened  at 
my  house,  and  held  a  Biblical  colloquy  on  the  essential  characteristics  of 
genuine  repentance,  faith,  and  godliness,  in  which  they  endeavored  to  ben- 
efit each  other,  according  to  the  grace  given  them,  by  communicating  the 
results  of  their  own  experience  and  self-examination,  so  that  it  was  a 
cheermg  and  a  delightful  season.  The  residue  of  the  evening  was  spent 
in  singing  spiritual  hymns  and  psalms,  and  in  conversation  about  the 
spiritual  condition  of  our  churches ;  and  so  short  did  the  time  appear 
that  it  was  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  we  retired  to  rest.  Oh, 
how  delightful  it  is  when  ministers,  standing  aloof  from  all  political  and 
party  contests,  seek  to  please  their  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Chi'ist,  and 


590         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

have  at  heart  the  welfare  of  their  churches  and  the  souls  intrusted  to 
their  care,  and  are  willing  rather  to  suffer  reproach  with  the  people  of 
God  than  choose  the  treasures  of  Egypt !  " 

During  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  Germans  generally  were  strong 
supporters  of  the  colonies.  Though  thousands  of  them  had  taken  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  England,  they  still  felt  that  for  their  own  sake  and 
for  that  of  their  children  they  must  sustain  the  colonial  cause.  Conse- 
A  patriotic  old  q^cntly  many  of  them  were  among  the  proscribed.  Muh- 
™^'^-  lenberg  was  included  in  that  number.     He  retired  from 

Philadelphia  during  its  occupancy  by  the  British  troops.  Some  of  his 
friends  crossed  the  lines  into  the  city,  and  when  they  returned  he  said, 
"  They  report  that  the  name  of  Muhlenberg  is  made  very  suspicious 
among  the  Hessian  and  English  officers  in  Philadelphia,  who  threaten 
bitterly  with  prison,  torture,  and  death,  if  they  can  catch  the  old  fellow." 
One  of  his  sons,  a  Lutheran  minister,  left  the  pulpit  for  the  camp,  and 
after  the  organization  of  the  government  he  was  elected  speaker  of  the 
first  three  houses  of  Congress. 

In  1782  Dr.  Muhlenberg  was  compelled  to  retire  from  the  active 
ministry.  He  died  in  1787,  in  the  full  triumph  of  an  inspiring  faith. 
His  life  was  one  of  pure  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christianity.  He  was 
practical  and  direct  in  all  his  teachings ;  he  taught  a  religion  that  touched 
not  only  the  head,  but  also  the  heart.  He  fraternized  with  all  Chris- 
tians, no  matter  what  name  they  bore,  for  with  them  he  recognized  but 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism.  His  mind  was  born  to  command  and 
inspire ;  while  his  piety  and  exemplary  character  made  him  in  his  ad- 
vanced years  an  object  of  veneration  to  all  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact. Those  who  came  immediately  after  him  did  not  adopt  his  method 
and  spirit,  which  however  have  been  taken  up  and  pursued  by  later 
leaders  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States.  —  B.  F.  P. 


LIFE  VIIL     MICHAEL   SCHLATTER. 

A.  D.  1716-A.  D.  1790.     REFORMED   (geRMAn), AMERICA. 

All  know  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  of  New  England : 
how  that  in  order  to  carry  out  in  peace  their  conscientious  views  in  re- 
spect to  church  order  they  crossed  the  ocean  and  founded  here  new  com- 
monwealths, that  have  been  so  favored  by  Providence  as  to  grow  far 
beyond  their  original  expectations.  The  story  of  the  first  settlement  of 
the  Germans  in  large  numbers  in  the  colony  of  William  Penn  is  not  less 
interesting  than  the  well-known  story  of  the  Pilgrims.  They  left  their 
beautiful  liomes  in  consequence  of  religious  persecutions,  and  many  of 
them  found  a  welcome  refuge  first  in  England  before  coming  to  America. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     MICHAEL   SCHLATTER.  591 

They  were  more  severely  persecuted  than  were  the  non-conformists  of 
England.  Not  only  were  they  not  allowed  to  worship  in  peace,  accord- 
ing to  their  reformed  faith,  but  active,  violent,  and  persevering  efforts 
were  made  to  compel  them  again  to  become  Romanists.  In  1686  the 
great  Augsburg  league  was  formed  by  the  emperor  and  many  princes, 
which  undertook  to  defend  the  borders  of  the  empire,  in  pursuance  of 
which  the  western  frontier  of  Germany  was  sorely  oppressed.  In  1689 
the  Palatinate  was  given  over  to  pillage  and  plunder  by  the  French.  The 
commander,  Melac,  laid  a  great  portion  of  the  city  of  Heidelberg  in 
ashes.  Cities  and  villages  shared  a  similar  fate.  Many  of  the  inhab- 
itants perished  in  the  cold,  and  many  others  who  tried  to  rescue  their 
goods  were  slain.  In  consequence  of  a  long-continued  series  of  persecu- 
tions, there  now  followed  such  an  exodus  as  is  without  a  parallel  in  the 
history  of  Europe,  excepting  the  ancient  migration  of  the  Germanic  peo- 
ples, and  the  Saxon  invasion  of  England  in  the  fifth  century.  We  are 
told  "  that  the  traveler  who  to-day  visits  the  Palatinate  will  often  hear 
the  fixrmer  call  his  dog  '  Melac,'  '  Melac,'  in  detestation  of  the  memory 
of  the  inhuman  butcher  who  nearly  two  hundred  years  ago  made  the 
castellated  Rhine  run  red  with  innocent  blood." 

Nothing  in  history  is  more  beautiful  than  the  warm  sympathy  and  love 
that  existed  in  the  post-Reformation  age  between  the  diiFerent  branches 
of  the  reformed  churches  in  the  different  parts  of  Europe.  When  the 
Palatines  were  driven  out  of  their  homes,  thousands  of  them  fled  to 
England,  where  they  were  kindly  received,  protected,  and  aided,  as  John 
de  Laski  and  his  brethren  from  Friesland  had  been  previously.  When 
Knox  and  thousands  of  the  best  men  of  Scotland  and  England  were  com- 
pelled for  a  time  to  flee  to  the  Continent,  they  found  a  safe  refuge  and  a 
Christian  reception  in  Frankfort  (Germany)  and  in  Geneva  (Switzer- 
land). When,  in  the  days  of  the  infamous  Alba,  more  than  two  hundred 
thousand  families  fled  in  terror  from  Holland,  they  were  received  with 
open  arms  by  the  neighboring  German  provinces  (now  included  in  West- 
phalia) and  in  the  distant  Palatinate.  When  the  Huguenots  were  driven 
in  such  great  numbers  from  France,  they  found  brethren  of  the  same  re- 
formed fiiith  ready  to  help  them  in  Germany  and  England.  And  it  was 
the  powerful  voice  of  Cromwell  speaking  from  England  that  stayed  for 
a  time  the  persecutions  of  the  Waldenses. 

The  original  emigration  from  Germany,  which  forms  the  root  of  the 
two  denominations  in  America  known  as  the  Reformed  and   _   . 

The  home  of  the 

the  Lutherans,  came  from  that  province  in  Germany  then   German  Re- 

.  •'  formed. 

known  as  the  Palatinate.     It  is  the  most  fertile  and  most 
beautiful  part  of  Germany,  lying  on  its  frontiers  over  against  France, 
through  which  contending  armies  have  for  ages  passed  and  repassed.     It 
has  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  separate  kingdom.     A  portion  of  it  (Rhen- 
ish Bavaria)  belongs  now  to  Bavaria ;  another  portion,  with  the   ducient 


592  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

capital,  Heidelberg,  forms  the  sovithern  part  of  Baden ;  aud  a  third  por- 
tion has  recently  been  annexed  to  Prussia. 

Soon  after  the  territory  of  Pennsylvania  was  granted  to  William  Penn 
by  the  king  of  England  (on  the  4th  of  March,  1681),  the  Germans  com- 
menced to  settle  in  this  new  colony.  As  early  as  1730  a  report  made  to 
the  synod  of  South  Holland  states,  "  Not  long  after  the  first  settlement' 
many  of  the  oppressed  inhabitants  of  Germany,  and  particularly  out  of 
the  Palatinate,  and  the  districts  of  Nassau,  Waldeck,  Witgenstein,  and 
Wetterau,  emigrated  to  Pennsylvania,  with  their  wives  and  children. 
....  At  this  time  the  Reformed,  holding  to  the  old  Reformed  Confession, 
constitute  more  than  one  half  of  the  whole  number,  being  about  fifteen 
thousand."  From  this  tim^  on  German  emigration  increased,  so  that  in 
a  single  year  more  than  thirty  thousand  left  the  Palatinate  alone,  to  seek 
a  Patmos  in  the  New  World.  They  settled  at  first  near  Philadelphia,  but 
later  mainly  in  the  fertile  valleys  of  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
Maryland ;  thence  along  these  same  valleys  into  Virginia,  North  and 
South  Carolina.  Those  Palatines  who  had  first  gone  to  England  at  the 
invitation  of  Queen  Anne,  numbering  about  seven  thousand,  presented  a 
petition  whose  opening  words  will  best  describe  their  condition :  "  We,  of 
the  distressed  Palatinate,  whose  utter  ruin  was  occasioned  by  the  fnercUess 
ci'uelty  of  a  bloody  enemy,  the  French,  whose  prevailing  powers  some 
years  ago,  rushing  like  a  torrent  into  our  country,  overwhelmed  us  at  once, 
and  who,  not  being  content  with  money  and  with  food  necessary  for  their 
occasions,  not  only  dispossessed  us  of  all  suj^port,  but  inhumanly  burnt 
our  homes  to  the  ground,  —  we,  being  deprived  of  both  shelter  and  food, 
were  turned  into  the  open  fields,  and  driven  with  our  families  to  seek  what 
shelter  we  could  find,  being  obliged  to  make  the  frozen  earth  our  lodging, 
and  the  clouds  our  covering."     These  settled  first  in  Scho- 

The  German  Re-  ° 

formed  in  harie,  New  York,  where  they  were  ill  treated  by  the  author- 

ities, so  that  about  tlie  year  1712,  under  the  leadership  of 
Conrad  Weiser,  they  constructed  rafts,  floated  down  the  Susquehanna  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Swatara,  and  took  up  their  abodes  near  the  waters  of 
the  Tulpehocken,  in  Berks  County,  Pennsylvania. 

These  Germans  formed  in  many  instances  the  outposts  of  civilization, 
and  served  to  protect  not  a  few  English  communities  from  the  incur- 
sions of  the  Indians.  But  the  people  were  mostly  poor.  They  were  not 
able  to  bring  ministers  of  the  gospel  with  them,  but  they  brought  over 
their  Bibles,  catechisms,  hymn  books,  and  devotional  works.  In  many 
settlements  they  had  pious  and  excellent  schoolmasters.  In  most  cases 
they  formed  congregations,  built  churches,  and  by  their  side  at  once  planted 
school-houses,  each  with  a  dwelling  and  land  for  the  occupancy  of  the 
schoolmaster.  These  often,  when  there  was  no  minister,  conducted  a  reli- 
gious service  by  the  reading  of  sermons  and  prayers,  and  the  people  sought 
and  found  spiritual  edification  in  these  services,  and  in  singing  the  grand 


Cent.  XVIT.-XIX.]      MICHAEL   SCHLATTER.  593 

old  hymns  and  chorals  of  the  fatherland.  As  early  as  1726  a  log  church 
was  built  in  Skippack,  Pennsylvania.  A  few  ministers  came  from  Ger- 
many, and  extended  their  labors  with  considerable  success  over  the  vari- 
ous German  settlements.  The  man  who  was  to  organize  these  congrega- 
tions into  a  compact  whole,  and  thus  to  lay  a  stable  foundation  for  future 
growth,  was  the  Rev.  Michael  Schlatter,  the  story  of  whose  life  and  labors 
we  are  now  to  tell. 

Michael  Schlatter  was  born  in  Switzerland  (the  cradle  of  the  Re- 
formed Church),  in  St.  Gall,  then  a  large  city,  lying  in  a  Schlatter's  early 
beautiful  valley  on  the  bank  of  the  Steinach,  on  July  14,  ^'^'^• 
1716.  His  parents  were  pious  members  of  the  Reformed  faith,  and  he 
was  early  consecrated  to  God  in  the  covenant  of  baptism.  He  grew  up 
under  the  ministrations  of  a  devoted  pastor.  Rev.  Christopher  Stahelin. 
He  made  a  public  profession  of  religion  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  received 
a  superior  education  at  the  university,  made  a  tour  through  Holland 
and  Northwestern  Germany,  and  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  spent 
some  years  in  Holland,  where  he  was  also  ordained.  Returning  to  Switz- 
erland, he  became  a  vicar  in  1745,  assistant  pastor  in  St.  Gall  for  a 
time;  and  then  on  January  9,  1746,  he  again  went  to  Amsterdam,  in 
order  to  offer  his  services  to  the  synods  of  Holland  for  supplying  the  des- 
titute German  churches  in  Pennsylvania,  whose  cry  for  help  had  been 
for  some  years  heard,  especially  in  Holland.  "In  1731,  while  the  Hol- 
land synod  was  in  session  in  Dortrecht,  eight  hundred  exiled  Palatines 
passed  through  the  place  to  take  ships  at  Rotterdam  for  America.  They 
were  visited  by  the  whole  synod  in  a  body,  and  were  furnished  by  them 
with  provisions  and  medicines.  After  exhortation,  prayer,  and  singing, 
they  were  dismissed,  with  the  assurance  that  they  might  rely  upon  the 
church  of  Holland  for  support  in  their  new  homes."  There  is  extant  a 
letter  from  Rev.  Jedidiah  Andrews  (Presbyterian),  of  Philadelphia,  to 
Rev.  Thomas  Prince,  of  Boston,  dated  1730,  in  which  he  says,  "There 
is  besides  in  this  province  a  vast  number  of  Palatines,  and  they  come  in 
still  every  year.  Those  that  have  come  in  of  late  years  are  mostly  Pres- 
byterians, or,  as  they  call  themselves.  Reformed,  from  the  Palatinate, 
about  three  fifths  being  of  that  sort  of  people.  They  did  use  to  come  to 
me  for  the  baptism  of  their  children,  and  many  have  joined  with  us  in 
the  other  sacrament."  In  another  letter  he  says,  "  There  is  lately  come 
over  a  Palatine  candidate  of  the  ministry,  who  has  applied  to  us  at  the 
synod  for  ordination.  The  matter  is  left  to  three  ministers.  He  is  an 
extraordinary  person  for  sense  and  learning.  We  gave  him  a  question 
to  discuss  about  justification,  and  he  has  answered  it  in  a  whole  sheet 
of  paper  in  a  very  notable  manner.  His  name  is  John  Peter  Millen  :  he 
speaks  Latin  as  well  as  we  do  our  vernacular  tongues,  and  so  does  an- 
other, Mr.  Weiss." 

Mr.  Schlatter's  services  were  accepted ;  on  the  23d  of  May,  1746,  his 
38 


594  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

instructions  were  made  out,  and  on  the  1st  of  June  he  sailed  for  the  New 
World.  His  work  was  to  include  the  following:  (1)  to  visit  Reformed 
settlements,  to  organize  congregations,  to  preach  to  them,  to  baptize  their 
children,  and  to  prepare  proper  church  records ;  (2)  to  ascertain  what 
each  congregation  would  pledge  itself  for  toward  the  support  of  a  min- 
ister, and  to  unite  weak  congregations  under  one  pastorate ;  (3)  to  enlist 
the  cooperation  of  the  ministers  already  in  America,  and  to  form  a 
synod ;  (4)  to  visit  the  ministers  annually ;  and  (5)  after  this  work  had 
been  accomplished  to  preach  as  the  other  ministers. 

After  a  voyage  of  two  months  he  lauded  at  Boston,  and  by  the  6th  of 
Lands  in  the  September  arrived  overland  at  Philadelphia,  where  he  was 
New  World.  most  affectionately  welcomed  by  the  elders  of  the  Reformed 
church.  He  found  Philadelphia  to  be  a  city  of  ten  thousand  inhabitants 
(being  next  largest  in  size  to  Boston).  It  had,  at  this  time,  the  fol- 
lowing churches  :  (1)  the  English  (or  Episcopal)  church  ;  (2)  the  Swed- 
ish church  ;  (3)  the  German  Evangelical  (or  Lutheran)  church  ;  (4)  the 
Old  Presbyterian  church ;  (5)  the  German  Reformed  church.  Besides 
these,  there  were  two  Quaker  meeting-houses,  one  Baptist,  one  Roman 
Catholic,  and  one  Moravian  church.  At  once  he  commenced  his  work, 
and  in  the  brief  space  of  ten  days  accomplished  what  would  have  re- 
quired most  men  almost  as  many  weeks.  With  intense  activity  he  pros- 
ecuted his  missionary  journeys  among  the  new  settlements  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  Jersey,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  preaching,  administering  the 
sacraments,  encouraging  ministers  and  people,  organizing  congregations 
and  forming  them  into  suitable  fields  of  labor.  He  found  four  regular 
German  Reformed  ministers  laboi'ing  in  Pennsylvania  (Boehm,  Weiss, 
Reiger,  and  Dorstius),  and  upon  his  invitation  they,  for  the  first  time, 
met  together  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1746,  to  prepare 
Organizes  the  ^he  wav  for  a  formal  organization  of  the  synod.  This  took 
.first  synod.  pj^ce  the   next  year,  September  29,  1747,  in  Philadelphia, 

at  which  time  thirty-one  ministers  and  elders  were  present.  Rev.  J.  B. 
Reiger  opened  the  synod  by  a  sermon  based  on  Psalm  cxxxiii.,  a  very 
;  appropriate  text  for  such  an  occasion. 

Besides  acting  as  superintendent,  Schlatter  labored  as  pastor  in  the 
■churches  in  Philadelphia  and  Germantown.  A  few  incidents  from  this 
early  period  of  his  labors  will  interest  the  reader.  On  the  6th  of  De- 
cember, 1747,  the  new  church  in  Philadelphia  was  used  for  religious 
service,  although  it  had  as  yet  neither  windows  nor  pulpit.  The  reason 
was  that  the  number  of  hearers  had  so  far  increased  that  the  old  church 
^could  contain  only  one  half  of  those  who  attended.  A  crowd  of  people 
worshiping  in  the  dead  of  winter  in  a  building  without  windows  manifests 
stern  earnestness  in  the  worship  of  Almighty  God.  In  August,  1748, 
Schlatter  was  greatly  encouraged  by  the  arrival  of  three  ministers  sent 
•out  by  the  Holland  synod.     In  October  he  was  deeply  saddened  to  hear 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]      MICHAEL   SCHLATTER.  595 

from  his  home  that  one  of  them  had  there  accidentally  lost  his  life  by 
the  discharge  of  a  gun  in  his  own  hands.  After  laboring  for  nearly  two 
years,  Schlatter  says  in  one  of  his  reports,  "  I  cannot  refrain  from  refer- 
ring briefly  to  the  fact  that  these  three  congregations  [in  New  Jersey], 
from  gratitude  for  the  services  I  have  rendered  them,  handed  me  a  pe- 
cuniary reward ;  and  this  is  the  first  money  which,  since  my  arrival  in 
America  up  to  this  time,  I  have  received  from  any  congregation  for  my 
labor  and  pains.  Also  in  my  own  congregations,  up  to  the  present  time, 
I  have  drawn  no  salary.  I  must  state,  however,  that  different  congrega- 
tions have  offered  me  some  money,  but  I  declined  receiving  it,  in  order 
to  convince  them  that  I  did  not  seek  theirs,  but  them;  while  in  the  mean 
time  God  has  provided  for  me  in  a  way  that  calls  for  devout  praise,  and 
has  also  enabled  me  to  be  content  with  little." 

After  laboring  thus,  with  most  intense  activity,  for  five  years,  Schlatter, 
at  the  request  of  the  synod,  made  a  visit  to  Europe,  in  1751,  j^  Europe  for 
a  mission  from  which  flowed  vast  results  for  good  to  the  America's  sake. 
churches  in  America.  He  had  arranged  sixteen  fields  of  labor  (or 
charges),  including  forty-six  congregations  ;  but  of  these  only  six,  com- 
posed of  fourteen  congregations,  were  supplied  with  ministers.  Making 
a  final  visitation  to  the  churches,  attending  the  sessions  of  the  synod,  and 
partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper  once  more  with  his  people  on  Christmas 
day,  Schlatter  embarked  on  the  5th  of  February,  1751,  at  New  Castle, 
and  on  the  12th  of  April  landed  in  Holland.  He  at  once  attended  the 
meeting  of  the  Classis  of  Amsterdam,  and  in  conjunction  with  a  com- 
mittee of  the  same  drew  up  and  printed  an  "  Appeal "  in  behalf  of  the 
American  churches.  This  was  soon  after  translated  and  printed  in  Ger- 
man, and  also  in  English.  The  synod  of  North  Holland  appointed  him 
to  visit  Switzerland  and  Germany,  to  secure  ministers  for  the  American 
field.  He  spent  four  months  in  this  work.  This  Appeal  bore  good  fruit 
in  each  of  these  countries.  The  immediate  result  of  his  labors  was  that 
he  was  enabled  to  sail  from  Holland,  on  his  return  way,  March,  1752, 
with  six  newly-ordained,  learned,  and  pious  ministers,  together  with  sub- 
stantial aid  in  money  and  seven  hundred  German  Bibles,  five  hundred  of 
which  were  in  folio,  which  were  presented  to  him  by  members  of  the 
churches  of  Amsterdam.  After  a  protracted  voyage  of  four  months  he 
arrived  again  in  the  midst  of  his  brethren  in  Pennsylvania.  We  will 
here  introduce  some  interesting  extracts  from  this  Appeal  of  Schlatter. 

In  the  introduction,  the  committee  of  classis  say,  "  This  man,  worthy, 
learned,  and  gifted  of  God  with  many  talents,  after  he  became  acquainted 
with  one  and  another  of  the  members  of  our  classis  ....  was  recom- 
mended to   the  deputies   of  both   synods These  saw  in  him   so 

many  evidences  of  firm  and  correct  judgment,  peculiar  fitness,  and  glow- 
ing zeal  to  serve  the  church  of  God  also  in  those  distant  regions,  that 
they  regarded  it  good  and  proper,  not  only  to  send  him  into  this  field  as 


596  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

a  regular  shepherd  and  teacher,  but  also,  with  the  full  consent  of  both 
synods,  to  invest  him  with  one  of  the  most  important  commissions." 

"  As  regards  the  condition  of  the  churches  in  Pennsylvania,  we  have 
received  so  much  light  from  the  extensive  diary  in  which  Mr.  Schlatter 
has  given  an  account  not  only  of  his  frequent  journeys  to  many  con- 
gregations, near  and  remote,  but  also  of  his  acts  and  labors  in  them, 
that  we  were  in  the  highest  degree  surprised  at  the  unwearied  and  almost 
incredible  labors  which  this  faithful  servant  of  God  —  whom  in  this  re- 
spect we  may  call  an  apostolical  man  —  has  devoted  to  the  churches  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  rejoiced  in  view  of  the  divine  support  which  he  has 
experienced  in  them." 

Schlatter  himself  says,  "  During  the  winter  months  [of  1747],  when  I 
for  the  most  part  remained  at  home,  I  received  many  soul-stirring  letters, 
from  large  and  small  congregations  in  remote  regions.  Besides  this, 
delegates  came  to  my  house  daily,  among  whom  were  some  who  had 
come  two  hundred,  yea,  three  hundred  miles.  Among  others,  there 
were  two  men  who  came  from  Virginia,  three  hundred  miles  from  here, 
bearing  a  most  urgent  and  moving  letter  from  the  destitute  congregations 

in  those  parts The  recollection  of  this   scene  even  now  again 

affects  me  in  the  tenderest  manner,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  a  heart  of 
stone  would  have  been  moved  to  sympathy  in  witnessing  the  many  tears, 
and  in  reading  and  hearing  the  touching  petitions,  with  which  they  so 
humbly  presented  their  case.  Oh,  that  the  church  in  the  blessed  Nether- 
lands, where  the  chief  Shepherd,  by  the  hand  of  a  host  of  faithful  under- 
shepherds,  makes  his  people  feed  in  green  pastures,  could  have  before 
them  a  full  picture  of  the  true  condition  of  so  many  congregations  in  a 
widely-extended  country ! "  "  My  intercession  is  not  for  a  handful  of  peo- 
ple, for  one  or  another  poor  family,  for  a  little  flock  that  has  fled  from 
popery,  but  for  more  than  thirty  thousand  of  the  Reformed  household  of 
faith,  living  in  the  land  of  their  pilgrimage,  —  in  a  land  that  is  large  and 
wide-spread,  yea,  fully  twice  as  large  as  the  United  Netherlands." 

"  I  reject  with  disgust  all  ill-odored  self-praise,  and  I  cannot  glory 
save  in  my  infirmities  ;  but  if  it  may  serve  to  the  awakening  of  others 
who  may  be  able  to  come  to  our  aid,  I  will,  in  all  lowliness,  and  to  the 
praise  of  that  God  who  supported  me  and  gave  me  the  will  and  the 
power  to  labor,  say  that  from  the  year  1747  till  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1751  I  have  traveled  in  this  part  of  America,  in  the  service  of 
the  lost  sheep,  to  collecl:  them  together,  to  bring  them  into  order  and 
edify  them,  a  distance  of  more  than  eight  thousand  miles,  —  not  reckoning 
my  passage  across  the  ocean ;  and  this,  for  the  most  part,  on  my  own 
horse,  by  day  and  by  night,  without  respect  to  heat  or  cold,  which  is 
often  alike  severe  in  this  country,  —  yea,  without  avoiding  danger,  as  not 
counting  my  life  dear  unto  myself.  ....  Amid  all  this  traveling  about, 
I  preached  six  hundred  and  thirty-five  times,  and  through  all  these  lar 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     MICHAEL   SCHLATTER.  597 

bors  God  has  spared  my  health  and  strength,  and  has  not  suffered  my 
desire  and  zeal  to  serve  the  churches  to  be  extinguished,  but  rather  to 
be  increased." 

An  address  to  the  Swiss  cantons  by  Rev.  H.  B.  Hudmaker,  minister 
at  the  Hague,  and  one  of  the  deputies  of  the  synod,  says :  "  Mr.  Schlat- 
ter, who  in  the  past  years  was  sent  thither  from  hence,  has  laid  before 
our  synod  the  fact  that  there  are  thirty  thousand  Reformed  scattered  far 
and  wide  through  that  region  ;  that  they  have  hardly  six  ministers,  and 
need  at  least  six  more,  besides  an  annual  addition  to  the  salary  of  all ; 
and  that  there  is  most  of  all  a  great  nded  of  school-masters  and  support 
for  them Our  synods  resolved  to  lend  them  assistance,  but,  bur- 
dened as  we  are  with  the  care  of  more  than  one  hundred  oppressed 
churches  in  Europe,  we  felt  that  we  were  not  in  a  condition  to  bear  this 
burden  ourselves,  and  found  it  necessary  not  only  to  apply  to  our  civil 
authorities,  but  also  to  call  in  the  aid  of  foreign  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
help,  especially  from  those  who  externally  stand   in  a  nearer  relation  to 

the  Pennsylvania  brethren  than  we  ourselves We  hope  that  you 

also  will  cheerfully  lend  your  aid  by  a  general  collection  in  money,  which 
you  will  send  to  us  for  them,  that  thus  our  hands  may  be  made  strong 
and  effective  by  your  state  and  church  contributions,  so  that  we  may 
firmly  erect  and  sustain  the  standard  of  the  gospel  in  those  regions.  To 
this  end  we  have  also  invited  the  brethren  in  England  to  make  common 
cause  with  us,  and  not  without  the  hope  of  a  happy  result.  So  that 
....  there  may  be  found  in  that  land  a  pleasant  place  of  refuge  for  the 

oppressed  Reformed  who  fly  thither  from  Europe And  may  the 

mutual  cooperation  of  the  Reformed  Swiss,  Germans,  Hollanders,  and 
English,  in  the  establishment  of  the  American  church,  and  the  fraternal 
correspondence  occasioned  thereby,  he  a  testimony  that  we  are  one,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  prove  a  blessed  means  and  incentive  to  a  still  more  in- 
ward brotherly  union." 

H.  M.  Muhlenberg  (Lutheran)  wrote  to  Halle :  "  Yea,  when  this  rep- 
resentation of  Mr.  Schlatter,  first  published  in  Dutch,  had  been  translated 
into  English  by  an  English  preacher  in  Holland,  it  made  such  an  im- 
pression upon  the  English  nation  that  even  his  majesty,  the  king  of  Great 
Britain,  and  the  royal  family  were  graciously  moved  to  contribute  a  large 
sum,  who  were  followed  by  rich  assistance,  also,  from  the  principal  lords 
and  dignitaries.  These  gifts,  which,  it  is  said,  amounted  to  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling,  were,  by  order  of  his  majesty,  placed  in  the  hands 
of  certain  trustees,  constituting  '  A  Society  for  Propagating  the  Knowl- 
edge of  God  among  the  Germans,'  from  the  interest  of  which  free  schools 
are  here  to  be  established  and  sustained  under  the  inspection  of  Mr. 
Schlatter." 

From  1752  to  1755  Schlatter  continued  his  labors  as  pastor  and  as 
superintendent  of  the  work  of  missions  among  the  German  churches  of 


598  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

the  Reformed  faith.  Immediately  after  this  he  was  appointed  agent  and 
Schlatter's  va-  superintendent  of  the  London  Society  for  the  Establishment 
Tied  labors.  pf  gchools  in  Pennsylvauia.    He  accepted  the  office,  because 

the  position  would  require  him  to  travel  through  the  country,  and,  as  the 
synod  affirmed,  he  could  still  maintain  a  certain  supervision  over  the 
scattered  congregations,  and  labor  for  the  advancement  of  the  church- 
He  continued  in  this  work  from  1755  to  1757.  In  the  latter  year  the 
French  war  broke  out,  aud,  as  a  portion  of  the  royal  army  was  composed 
of  Germans,  he  accepted  the  post  of  chaplain  in  the  fourth  battery,  which 
was  operating  in  Nova  Scotia.  As  such  he  was  present  at  the  siege 
of  Halifax,  and  the  seven  weeks'  siege  of  Louisburg.  After  1755  his 
residence  was  on  Chestnut  Hill,  ten  miles  from  Philadelphia,  where  he 
had  a  small  farm  which  he  named  "  Sweetland."  Here,  after  the  war, 
he  dwelt  in  comparative  quiet  and  retirement,  respected  by  the  whole 
community  and  the  public  men  of  the  state,  preaching  frequently  at 
Barren  Hill  and  other  places.  A  quaint  anecdote,  illustrating  his  patri- 
archal character,  comes  down  to  us  from  this  period :  "  It  was  customary 
in  those  days  for  the  female  worshipers  at  Barren  Hill  to  wear  short 
gowns  and  neat  aprons.  On  occasions  when  he  preached  there,  as  he 
proceeded  up  the  aisle  toward  the  pulpit,  — which  he  always  did  in  a  very 
hurried  manner,  —  he  would  suddenly  stop,  and  without  saying  a  word 
would  seize  hold  of  one  of  these  clean  aprons  to  wipe  the  dust  from  his 
glasses,  which  he  usually  carried  in  his  hands  when  not  in  use." 

Dr.  Harbaugh  speaks  of  one  trait  in  his  character  as  follows:  "Prom- 
inent amid  every  other  trait  in  Mr.  Schlatter's  character  is  his  extraor- 
dinary industry  and  perseverance.  He  was  a  man  of  astonishing  energy 
of  character.  In  a  review  of  his  life,  nothing  strikes  us  so  forcibly  as 
this.  It  seems  as  if  no  obstacles  in  the  path  of  duty  could  make  him 
hesitate.  No  difficulties  discouraged  him  ;  no  trials  disheartened  him ;  no 
failures  could  break  down  his  courage,  or  take  away  his  elasticity.  What- 
ever he  believed  ought  to  be  done  he  was  willing  to  undertake.  A  true 
Swiss,  he  was  not  to  be  subdued ;  nor  would  he  cease  pursuing  his  path, 
though  difficulties  rose  before  him,  like  hills  on  hills,  and  Alps  on  Alps, 
in  the  land  of  his  birth." 

He  retained  his  mental  and  bodily  vigor  in  a  remarkable  degree  in  his 
old  age.  His  death  took  place  in  the  month  of  November,  1790,  in  the 
seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age,  at  his  home  on  Chestnut  Hill.  His  remains 
were  taken  to  Philadelphia,  and  now  lie  buried  in  the  beautiful  Fi'anklin 
Square  of  that  city.  —  J.  H.  G. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    PHILIP    WILLIAM  OTTERBEIN.  599 

LIFE  IX.     PHILIP  WILLIAM  OTTERBEIN. 

A.    D.    1726-A.   D.     1813.       UNITED    BRETHREN, AMERICA. 

The  history  of  past  ages,  and  especially  that  which  relates  to  the 
church  of  God,  most  clearly  indicates  that  when  God  wants  a  man  for  a 
certain  purpose  He  will  raise  him  up.  The  very  circumstances  with 
which  such  a  man  may  be  surrounded  will  be  so  controlled  by  an  ever- 
present  and  ever-working  Providence  that  each  and  all  will  assist  in 
preparing  him  for  his  work.  The  history  of  Luther,  Calvin,  Wesley, 
and  their  coadjutors  will  verify  this.  So  will  the  life  of  William  Otter- 
bein,  founder  of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  who,  when 
God  wanted  a  man  to  awake  the  Germans  in  America,  was  made  his 
honored  instrument  in  accomplishing  that  work. 

In  studying  Otterbein  and  his  times,  it  will  be  well  to  note  here  and 
there  the  clear  manifestations  of  the  hand  of  God.  When  we  study  the 
lives  of  men,  we  are  prone  to  seek  clear  conceptions  of  their  characters. 
This  is  as  it  should  be.  We  do  not  err  in  that  we  find  too  much  in  the 
men  whom  we  study,  but  in  that  we  see  in  their  lives  too  little  of  the 
hand  of  Him  who  is  everywhere  at  work.  Whatever,  therefore,  may  be 
said  of  the  learning,  eloquence,  zeal,  and  success  of  Otterbein  as  a  re- 
former, he  deserves  no  credit  save  in  that  he  submitted  himself  to  the 
will  of  God.  It  was  God  in  him  that  gave  him  whatever  success  he  had. 
He  alone  is  able  to  raise  up  men  for  his  work.  "  Foreseeing  what  will 
be  needed  at  a  particular  juncture.  He  selects  and  prepares  the  means  He 
designs  to  use.  His  plans  and  purposes  for  the  most  part  are  hidden  from 
the  world ;  even  they  whom  He  intends  to  use  are  not  aware  of  the  part 
they  are  to  perform." 

Philip  William  Otterbein  was  born  in  Dillenberg,  in  the  duchy  of 
Nassau,  in  Germany,  on  the  4th  day  of  June,  1726.  His  j.  .  jj^^  j^^ 
father,  John  Daniel  Otterbein,  was  rector  of  a  Latin  school  Germany. 
in  Herborn,  and  subsequently  pastor  of  a  congregation  in  Fronhausen 
and  Wissenbach.  He  was  a  minister  in  the  Reformed  Church,  and  was 
noted  for  his  learning,  piety,  and  zeal.  His  son,  Philip  William,  was 
educated  for  the  ministry,  and  solemnly  ordained  at  Herborn  in  1749. 
He  was  well  instructed  in  Latin,  Greek,  tiebrew,  philosophy,  and  divin- 
ity. Soon  after  his  consecration  to  the  office  of  the  ministry  he  com- 
menced his  pastoral  work  in  Dillenberg.  He  was  then  about  twenty-four 
years  of  age.  It  certainly  speaks  well  for  him  that  he  was  so  soon 
chosen  as  pastor  in  his  native  town. 

Although  Otterbein  was  well  instructed  in  theology,  he  had  not  at  this 
time  experienced  a  change  of  heart.  But  withal  he  was  a  man  of  con- 
science, and  earnestly  desired  to  enter  into  the  possession  of  all  there  was 


600         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

in  the  gospel  for  him  to  enjoy.  With  him  there  was  nothing  of  such 
importance  as  the  Word  of  God.  What  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  he 
would  expound  and  enforce  with  great  earnestness.  His  sermons  were 
remarkable  for  their  plainness,  spirit,  and  evangelical  power ;  and  God 
owned  the  truth,  for  the  truth's  sake.  And  whilst  nothing  could  be  said 
against  the  character  of  Otterbein,  nor  against  the  truths  he  taught,  yet 
some  of  his  friends  advised  him  to  use  greater  caution  in  his  exhortations 
and  reproofs.  But,  even  as  Daniel,  when  he  knew  that  the  writing  was 
sealed,  went  to  his  chamber  and  prayed  as  aforetime,  so  Otterbein  went 
to  his  puljait  and  preached  as  aforetime.  Owing  to  this  plain  and  ear- 
nest manner  of  preaching  the  truth,  both  the  clergy  and  the  magistrates 
were  turned  against  him,  and  the  authorities  were  privately  solicited  to 
arrest  his  preaching.  When  his  pious  mother  learned  that  there  was  such 
opposition  to  his  preaching  she  said  to  him,  "  Ah,  William,  I  expected 
this,  and  give  you  joy.  This  place  is  too  narrow  for  you,  my  son ;  they 
will  not  receive  you  here  ;  you  will  find  your  work  elsewhere."  She  did 
not  think  that  slie  was  uttering  a  prophecy  which  would  be  fulfilled  in 
the  manner  it  was.  She  seemed  only  to  realize  that  her  son  was  emi- 
nently fitted  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  her  faith  in  God  was  to 
the  elFect  that  a  way  would  be  opened  for  him. 

While  Otterbein  was  undergoing  this  severe  ordeal  in  his  native  town 
His  call  to  word  Came  to  him  from  what  was   then   called  the  New 

America.  World,  that  the  people  were  perishing  for  want  of  the  bread 

of  life.  This  turned  his  attention  to  America.  Here  we  see  the  hand 
of  God.  If  he  would  have  adopted  the  policy  the  clergy  and  magistrates 
desired,  he  would  have  found  a  lucrative  and  easy  field  at  home.  But 
God  wanted  a  man  to  come  to  America  to  break  the  bread  of  life  to  the 
famishing  Germans,  and  the  very  opposition  that  was  raised  against  him 
in  his  native  town  was  made  the  means  of  thrusting  him  out  over  the 
wide  sea,  to  become  one  of  the  standard-bearers  of  the  cross  of  Christ  in 
a  foreign  land. 

In  the  year  1751,  Michael  Schlatter  returned  from  America,  after 
having  spent  several  years  as  an  exploring  missionary.  He  represented 
the  wants  of  the  people  as  being  very  great ;  in  council  with  the  synods 
of  North  and  South  Holland,  he  made  a  call  for  six  young  ministers  to 
go  to  America  as  missionaries.  Otterbein  immediately  responded  to  the 
call,  and  was  accepted.  He  at  once  set  about  making  the  necessary  ar- 
rangements for  his  departure.  His  separation  from  his  mother  was  a 
severe  trial  to  both.  She  had  given  her  son  to  the  Lord,  yet  when  the 
hour  drew  near  for  him  to  depart  it  was  a  greater  trial  than  she  had 
anticipated.  She  retired  to  her  closet,  and  there  importuned  God  for 
courage  and  strength  to  bear  up  under  the  ordeal.  Returning  from  her 
devotions,  she  took  her  son  by  the  hand,  and  said,  "  Go,  my  son  ;  the  Lord 
bless  thee,  and  much  grace  direct  thy  steps.     On  earth  I  may  not  see  thy 


Cent.  XVn.-XIX.]    PHILIP    WILLIAM  OTTERBEIN.  601 

face  again,  but  go."  "  With  what  strange  and  beautiful  courage  and  grace 
can  a  mother's  love  bind  its  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  ! "  "  On  earth  I  may 
not  see  thy  face  again,  but  go."  It  was  even  so :  on  earth  she  saw  his 
face  no  more.  Upon  the  evening  of  July  27,  1752,  he  landed  in  New 
York. 

In  August,  1752,  Otterbein  entered  upon  his  labors  at  Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania.  He  gave  himself  wholly  to*the  pastoral  work,  fjr  he  be- 
lieved that  it  could  engage  all  his  powers.  He  was  a  man  of  order,  and, 
finding  almost  everything  out  of  order,  he  resolved  to  bring  order  out 
of  confusion.  It  is  but  just  to  state  that  at  this  time  (1752),  both  in 
Germany  and  in  America,  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth  was  well-nigh  cov- 
ered up  with  forms  and  ceremonies.  But  few  of  the  clergy  knew  any- 
thing about  it  experimentally.  Otterbein  himself,  though  regularly  or- 
dained, had  never  been  a  subject  of  this  change. 

There  was  a  remarkable  coincidence  in  John  Wesley's  experience  and 
that  of  Otterbein.  In  his  journal  Wesley  says,  "  I  went  to  Awakened  in 
America  to  convert  the  Indians,  but  oh,  who  shall  convert  ^pint. 
me !  "  Otterbein  came  to  America  to  convert  the  Germans,  and  was  not 
himself  converted.  He  had  studied  the  Word  of  God,  and  obtained  a 
pretty  clear  idea  of  the  nature  of  conversion.  Its  power  he  was  led 
to  feel  ia  the  following  manner :  On  a  certain  Sabbath  he  preached  one 
of  his  pointed  sermons  on  the  necessity  of  a  new  heart  and  life.  At 
the  close  of  the  sermon  one  of  his  congregation,  who  had  been  touched 
by  the  power  of  truth,  came  to  him  in  tears,  and  asked  what  he  must  do 
to  be  saved.  The  question  was  brought  to  Otterbein  as  it  had  never  been 
before.  Paul  could  tell  the  jailer  in  a  few  words  what  to  do,  but  here 
was  a  learned,  eloquent  minister  who  could  not  tell  a  poor  penitent  soul 
what  he  must  do  to  be  saved.  He  looked  upon  the  man,  and  with  deep 
emotion  said,  "  My  friend,  advice  is  scarce  with  me  to-day."  This  inci- 
dent brought  him  to  a  crisis.  He  had  for  a  long  time  felt  the  necessity 
of  a  new  heart,  but  had  not  sought  it  with  full  faith.  He  had  often 
preached  it  to  others,  and  now  another  preached  it  to  him.  He  imme- 
diately repaired  to  his  study,  and  there  remained  in  earnest  prayer  until 
God  in  mercy  gave  him  a  new  heart.  If  his  preaching  up  to  this  time 
had  been  plain  and  logical,  it  was  none  the  less  so  now,  and,  besides,  was 
accompanied  with  an  unction  which  neither  he  nor  his  people  had  felt 
before.  Having  now  entered  into  a  new  life,  he  was  eminently  fitted  for 
a  leader.     He  was  calm,  dignified,  humble,  and  devout. 

Otterbein  remained  sis  years  in  Lancaster,  during  which  time  he 
experienced  no  small  degree  of  trouble.  His  people  were  disorderly, 
not  willing  to  endure  the  restraints  which  the  gospel  imposed.  The 
majority  of  them  knew  nothing  about  a  change  of  heart.  They  relied 
upon  forms  and  ceremonies.  This  grieved  the  pastor,  for  he  most  ear- 
nestly desired  to  lead  them  into  a  higher  and  better  life.    Those  acquainted 


602  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  Y. 

with  the  history  of  the  churches  in  America  a  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years  ago,  especially  among  the  Germans,  will  understand  how  diliicult 
it  must  have  been  to  lead  them  away  from  the  mere  forms  of  religion 
into  a  life  of  faith,  purity,  and  love.  Still  his  work  at  Lancaster  was  by 
no  means  a  failure.  His  name  by  tradition  is  to  this  day  in  honorable 
mention  by  many  in  that  city.  The  author  of  the  "  Fathers  of  the  Re- 
formed Church "  thus  speaks  of  Otterbein :  "  Under  his  [Otterbein's] 
ministry  the  old  small  wooden  church  which  stood  in  the  back  part  of  the 
grave-yard  was  superseded  by  a  massive  stone  church  on  the  street,  which 
was  built  in  1753,  and  was  not  taken  down  till  1852,  having  stood  almost 
a  century.  Internally  the  congregation  greatly  prospered.  Evidences 
of  his  order  and  zeal  look  out  upon  us  from  the  records  in  many  ways, 
and  enterprises  started  in  his  time  have  extended  their  results  in  the 
permanent  features  of  the  congregation  down  to  this  day." 

Like  many  earnest  and  faithful  servants  of  God,  he  could  not  accom- 
plish what  lie  desired,  because  he  preached  and  insisted  upon  a  change  of 
heart.  Many  of  his  brethren  in  the  ministry,  as  well  as  in  the  laity,  were 
turned  against  him.  But  he  was  not  to  be  diverted  from  his  purpose. 
Jesus  Cbrist  and  Him  crucified  was  his  all-absorbing  theme.  He  had 
launched  his  vessel,  and  would  not  put  into  port  until  the  Master  bade 
him.  Near  the  end  of  the  year  1758  he  resigned  his  charge  with  a  view 
of  entering  a  field  where  he  hoped  to  find  a  people  more  willing  to  receive 
the  Word  of  Life. 

From  Lancaster  he  went  to  Tulpehocken,  where  he  took  charge  tem- 
porarily of  two  congregations.  Here  he  found  less  opposition  and  more 
freedom.  His  purpose  was  not  only  to  fill  the  pulpit  on  the  Sabbath,  but 
to  win  souls  to  Christ.  To  accomplish  this  he  went  from  house  to  house, 
like  a  true  pastor.  It  was  a  new  measure,  and  the  people  were  sur- 
prised to  see  a  man  so  in  earnest.  Here  for  the  first  time  he  introduced 
evening  meetings,  at  which  he  would  read  portions  of  Scripture,  sing, 
pray,  and  exhort  the  people.  This  was  another  new  measure,  and  the 
people  were  not  a  little  astonished  at  it.  For  one  to  be  so  concerned 
about  the  souls  of  others  was  new  and  strange.  At  this  time  there  was 
not  a  Methodist  society  in  America.  Those  who  were  church  members, 
especially  among  the  Germans,  were  mere  nominal  Christians.  Otterbein 
understood  the  situation,  and,  like  Isaiah,  would  not  rest  nor  hold  his 
peace  until  the  people  were  aroused.  "  What  does  this  mean  ?  "  said  some ; 
"  the  minister  and  men  and  women  kneel  and  pray  and  weep,  and  call 
ujion  God,  for  Jesus'  sake,  to  have  mercy  upon  them.  Who  ever  heard 
of  such  procedure  ?  "  These  prayer-meetings  afforded  important  aid  to 
the  blessed  work  of  reformation. 

While  Otterbein  was  scattering  the  precious  seed  in  and  around  Tul- 
pehocken, another  link  was  being  formed,  which,  under  tlie  hand  of  God, 
was  to  be  welded  into  the  chain  which  was  being  wrought  out.     It  was 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     PHILIP    WILLIAM   OTTERBEIN.  603 

not  by  accident  oi'  chance ;  God  did  it  in  his  own  way.  It  is  wonderful 
how  God  will  sometimes  brin^  together  elements  which  in  their  nature 
are  altogether  dissimilar.  Otterbeiu  was  well  educated  and  regularly 
ordained  to  the  office  of  a  minister,  and  if  it  had  been  left  to  men  to 
select  a  co-laborer  no  doubt  the  choice  would  have  been  from  among 
men  of  high  culture  in  a  literary  sense.  But  God's  ways  are  not  man's 
ways,  nor  his  thoughts  their  thoughts. 

Martin  Boehm  was  the  son  of  a  farmer,  and  a  farmer  himself.  He  was 
a  minister  elect  in  the  Mennonite  society,  of  which  his  parents  were  mem- 
bers. Whilst  it  is  doubtless  true  that  the  Mennonites  in  former  times 
were  among  the  most  enlightened  and  spiritual  peojole  in  Europe,  it  is 
also  true  that  in  America,  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  writing,  they 
were  devoted  to  forms,  having  lost  their  spiritual  power. 

Soon  after  Boehm  was  elected  preacher  he  made  an  effort  to  preach, 
but  failed,  and  so  for  a  number  of  times.  This  distressed  him  very  much. 
To  be  a  preacher,  and  yet  have  nothing  to  preach,  was,  to  his  sensitive 
nature,  very  humiliating.  To  teach  others  the  way  of  salvation,  and  not 
know  the  way  himself,  finally  drove  him  to  earnest  prayer.  "  I  felt  con- 
strained," he  said,  "  to  pray  for  myself,  and  while  praying  my  mind  be- 
came alarmed.  I  felt  and  saw  myself  a  poor  sinner.  I  was  lost.  My 
agony  became  great.  I  was  plowing  ;n  the  field,  and  kneeled  down  at 
each  end  of  the  furrow  to  pray.  The  word  Lost!  Lost!  [Verlohren  !  Ver- 
lohren !]  went  every  round  with  me.  Midway  in  the  field,  I  could  go  no 
farther.  I  sank  down  behind  the  plow,  crying,  '  Lord,  save  me !  I  am 
lost ! '  Then  came  to  me  the  thought  or  voice,  '  I  am  come  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  which  is  lost.'  In  a  moment  I  was  filled  with  unspeakable 
joy,  and  I  was  saved." 

Here  now  were  two  men  brought  into  the  light  and  liberty  of  the  sons 
of  God,  who  up  to  this  time  had  not  seen  each  other.  They  were  mem- 
bers of  churches  widely  different  from  each  other.  But  religion  is  a 
unit,  —  one  thing.  All  are  baptized  by  one  Spirit  into  one  body.  Two 
precious  revivals  were  now  going  on :  one  under  the  labors  of  Otterbein 
at  Tulpehocken,  and  the  other  under  the  labors  of  Boehm  among  the 
Mennonites. 

A  meeting  (called  in  the  German  language  a  grosse  versammlung)  was 
appointed  to  be  held  in  Isaac  Long's  barn,  near  Lancaster, 

•^  "^  .  »  '  The  occasion  of 

Pennsylvania.  It  was  to  be  a  general  meeting  for  all  who  the  name 
desired  to  attend.  It  is  not  known  by  whom  this  meet- 
ing was  appointed,  most  probably  by  Boehm.  The  time  came,  and  with 
it  the  members  of  the  various  churches :  German  Reformed,  Mennon- 
ites, Tunkers,  and  Lutherans  ;  possibly  other  denominations  were  repre- 
sented. Some  came  for  one  thing,  and  some  for  another,  but  nearly  all 
were  drawn  together  out  of  curiosity.  They  were  anxious  to  see  what 
would  grow  of  such  a  meeting,  for  it  was  new  and  strange.     Here  these 


604  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

two  evaugelical  ministers  met  for  the  first  time.  Boelim  was  a  small 
man,  and  was  dressed  in  the  plain  style  of  a  Mennonite  preacher.  Ot- 
terbeiu  was  a  large  man,  and  dressed  in  the  ordinary  clerical  style  of 
his  church.  There  was  a  striking  contrast  in  the  personnel  of  the  two 
men. 

Boehm,  in  his  plain  and  neat  attire,  preached  the  opening  sermon.  All 
eyes  were  turned  upon  him  as  he  stood  expounding  the  Word  of  God. 
No  one  listened  with  greater  interest  than  did  Otterbein.  As  the  heart 
of  the  preacher  warmed  with  his  subject,  it  kindled  and  fed  a  flame  in 
the  heart  of  the  other.  At  the  close  of  the  sermon,  and  before  Boehm 
had  time  to  resume  his  seat,  Otterbein  arose  and,  folding  him  in  his  arms, 
exclaimed  with  a  loud  voice,  "  We  are  brethren  ! "  This  was  a  strange 
and  unexpected  turn  of  affairs,  —  the  scholarly  Otterbein  holding  in  his 
arms  the  plain  and  unassuming  Boehm,  and  this,  too,  upon  their  first  meet- 
ing. It  was  not  the  result  of  education,  nor  of  any  natural  affinity ;  it 
was  simply  a  proof  of  the  unity  of  religion,  —  baptized  by  one  Spirit  into 
one  body.  Boehm  lived  for  many  years,  and  was  the  honored  instrument 
of  winning  many  precious  souls  to  Christ.  After  their  first  meeting,  these 
two  evangelical  preachers  often  met,  and  were  fast  friends  until  death  sep- 
arated them. 

In  1760,  Otterbein  accepted  a  call  from  the  Reformed  church  at  Fred- 
erick, Maryland.  Here,  as  at  Tulpehocken,  he  entered  upon  his  labors 
with  all  the  zeal  and  ardor  of  a  man  who  felt  the  worth  of  perishing  souls. 
The  salvation  of  souls  was  to  his  mind  paramount  to  everything  else. 
During  his  stay  at  Frederick  he  extended  his  labors  into  the  regions  round 
about,  holding  services  in  barns,  private  houses,  and  often  in  the  open 
air.  Scores  of  precious  souls  were  awakened  and  brought  to  Christ 
through  his  labors  at  and  around  Frederick. 

Dr.  Zacharias,  pastor  of  the  Reformed  church  in  Frederick,  in  a  cen- 
tenary sermon  makes  the  following  remarks  concerning  Otterbein  :  "  Dur- 
ing Mr.  Otterbein's  labors  here  the  church  in  which  we  now  worship  was 
built ;  also  the  parsonage  which  has  been  the  successive  residence  of  your 

pastors  ever  since A  few  letters  ai'e  still  preserved  in  our  archives, 

written  by  Mr.  Otterbein,  while  at  York,  to  members  of  this  charge. 
From  these  letters,  brief  as  they  are,  you  may  easily  gather  the  spirit  of 
the  man.  Though  laboring  in  another  field,  he  remembered  with  afi^ec- 
tionate  kindness  and  concern  the  people  whom  he  had  recently  left.  He 
mourned  over  them,  and  endeavored  to  profit  them  by  imparting  to  them 
his  godly  council,  and  offering  up  in  their  behalf  his  earnest  prayers." 

This  testimony,  coming  from  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Zacharias  more  than 
eighty  years  after  Otterbein  had  served  them  as  pastor,  shows  the  very 
high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  among  the  people.  But  no  wonder, 
for  "  he  was  a  good  man,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  faith." 

An  educated  German  gives  this  testimony  concerning  the  appearance 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]     PHILIP    WILLIAM    OTTERBEIN.  605 

and  preacking  of  Otterbein :  "  Nearly  half  a  century  has  passed  since  I 
became  acquainted  with  Otterbein,  and  never  will  I  forget  the  impression 
made  upon  my  mind  when  I  first  saw  and  heard  him.  It  was  on  Good 
Friday,  in  the  forenoon,  when  by  the  persuasion  of  a  friend  I  entered 
the  church  where  he  officiated.  A  venerable,  portly  old  man,  above  six 
feet  in  height,  erect  in  posture,  apparently  about  seventy-five  years  of  age, 
stood  before  me.  He  had  a  remarkably  high  and  prominent  forehead. 
Gray  hair  fell  smoothly  down  both  sides  of  his  head,  on  his  temples ;  and 
his  eyes  were  large,  blue,  and  piercing,  and  sparkled  with  the  fire  of  love 
which  warmed  the  heart.  In  his  appearance  and  manners  there  was 
nothing  repulsive,  but  all  was  attractive,  and  calculated  to  command  the 
most  profound  attention  and  reverence.  He  opened  his  lips  in  prayer  to 
Jehovah.  Oh,  what  a  voice,  what  a  prayer !  Every  word  thrilled  my 
heart.  I  had  heard  many  prayers,  but  never  one  before  like  this.  The 
words  of  his  text  were  these :  '  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behooved 
Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the  third  day ;  and  that  repent- 
ance and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name,  among  all 
nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem.'  As  he  proceeded  in  the  elucidation  of 
the  text  and  its  application,  it  seemed  that  every  word  was  exactly  adapted 
to  my  case,  and  intended  for  me.  Every  sentence  smote  me.  On  the 
followiiig  Sabbath  I  again  went  to  his  church,  when  he  took  special  notice 
of  the  young  stranger,  and  gave  me  an  invitation  to  visit  him  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  I  complied  with  the  friendly  request  with  some  reluctance, 
it  is  true,  but  was  received  with  such  unaffected  tenderness  and  love,  and 
addressed  with  so  much  solicitude  for  my  salvation,  that  my  heart  was 
won." 

In  1765  Otterbein  closed  his  labors  at  Frederick,  and  accepted  a  call 
to  York,  Pennsylvania.      Here  he  labored  for  nine  years 

"^  Pursues  his 

with  his  usual  zeal  and  success.  During  all  these  years  at  work  in  the  Re- 
Tulpehocken,  Frederick,  and  York,  he  was  continually  being 
joined  by  additional  laborers,  most  of  whom  had  been  awakened  and 
brought  into  the  true  light  through  his  and  Boehm's  instrumentality. 
But  it  was  no  part  of  Otterbein's  purpose  to  organize  a  new  church. 
He  only  sought  to  win  souls  to  Christ,  and  impress  upon  the  consciences 
of  the  people,  and  especially  the  formal  professors  of  religion,  "  that  a 
vital  union  with  Christ  was  essential  to  a  religious  life."  But  God  in- 
tended him  for  a  leader,  and  so  controlled  the  circumstances  that  without 
his  own  choice  he  was  soon  placed  at  the  head  of  a  new  denomination. 
From  York  Otterbein  removed  to  Baltimore.  This  was  in  the  year 
1774.  He  was  in  the  forty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  his  ministry.  "  Nearly  twenty  years  had  passed  since  he  had 
entered  fully  into  the  light  and  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God;  and  during 
all  that  period  he  had  labored  incessantly,  in  public  and  private,  to  pro- 
mote in  the  churches  a  revival  of  Bible  religion."     If  he  had  been  in- 


606  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

fluenced  by  the  love  of  ease  or  money,  he  would  doubtless  have  remained 
in  charge  of  some  of  the  more  wealthy  and  popular  congregations.  But 
he  had  a  higher  and  nobler  aim.  He  was  after  souls  for  the  Master;  and 
many  a  poor  wanderer  was  led  by  him  into  the  fold  of  Christ. 

About  this  time  it  was  that  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Francis  As- 
bury,  and  they  remained  firm  friends  up  to  the  time  of  Otterbein's  death. 
When  Asbury  was  to  be  ordained  to  the  office  of  bishop  (1784)  such 
was  his  confidence  in  Otterbein  that  he  requested  that  he  should  assist  in 
his  ordination.  Otterbein,  many  severe  conflicts  past,  finally  organized 
n       •   „  o  ^o^   at  Baltimore  "  The  United  Brethren  in  Christ,"  a  church  in 

Organizes  a  new  ' 

denomination.  doctriue  and  discipline  distinct  from  and  independent  of  all 
other  denominations.  This,  as  already  intimated,  was  not  his  own  choice  ; 
there  was  a  combination  of  circumstances,  over  which  he  seemed  not  to 
have  any  control,  that  forced  him  into  this  measure.  This  organization 
was  perfected  September  25,  1800.  The  new  communion,  in  its  formal 
existence,  began,  therefore,  almost  contemporaneously  with  the  new  cent- 
ury. Otterbein  was  chosen  to  lead  the  new  body  in  the  ofiice  of  bishop, 
Boehm  being  associated  with  him. 

"The  great  meetings  which  had  been  so  happily  inaugurated  at  Isaac 
Long's  had  been  attended  from  year  to  year  by  the  richest  blessings. 
They  had  become  an  institution  of  no  small  value.  Thither  went  up 
the  people  of  God  from  all  quarters  and  churches,  as  the  tribes  of  Israel 
flowed  together  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles."  Otterbein  was  nearly  always 
present  at  these  meetings.  Many  there  were  who  bitterly  opposed  this 
work,  but  still  it  went  on.  "When  one  had  tasted  the  precious  word  of 
truth,  he  would  say,  "  Oh,  this  precious  gospel  must  be  preached  to  my 
neighbors  ! " 

Otterbein  continued  in  Baltimore  for  nearly  forty  years.  Here,  as  at 
Tulpehockeu,  Frederick,  and  York,  his  work  was  attended  with  tokens 
of  the  divine  sanction.  Scores  and  hundreds  of  souls  were  brought  to 
Christ.  "  The  little  wooden  church  in  which  his  congregation  first  wor- 
shiped gave  place  to  a  larger  structure,  and  that  in  turn  to  the  spacious 
edifice  which  now  stands  on  Conway  Street." 

At  length,  after  spending  sixty-two  years  in  the  ministry,  the  end  was 
reached,  and  on  the  17th  of  November,  1813,  he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 
The  last  vocal  prayer  offered  up  at  his  bedside  was  by  an  evangelical 
Lutheran  minister,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Kurtz,  a  personal  friend  of  Otterbein. 
The  last  words  of  Otterbein  were  these :  "  Jesus,  Jesus,  I  die,  but  Thou 
livest,  and  soon  I  shall  live  with  Thee."  Turning  to  his  friends  who  had 
come  to  see  how  their  pastor  and  leader  would  meet  death,  he  continued, 
"  The  conflict  is  over  and  past.  I  begin  to  feel  an  unspeakable  fullness 
of  love  and  peace  divine.     Lay  my  head  upon  my  pillow,  and  be  stUl." 

"  He  taught  us  how  to  live,  and  oh,  too  high 
A  price  of  knowledge,  taught  us  how  to  die  1  " 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     PHILIP    WILLIAM  OTTERBEIN. 


607 


The  remains  of  Otterbein  were  buried  in  the  church-yard  on  Howard's 
Hill,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  The  grave  is  adorned  with  two  plain 
marble  slabs,  the  upper  one  resting  on  four  pillars  of  marble,  with  the 
following  inscription :  — 


HIER  KUHEN 
DIE  GEBEINE   DES  VERSTORBENEN 

WILLIAM  OTTERBEIN. 

GEBOREN  4  JUNI,  1726  ; 
GESTORBEN  17  novp:mber,  1813. 

SEINES    ALTERS, 
87    JAHRE,    6  MONATE,    13    TAGE. 

"  Selig  sind  die  Todten  die  in  dem  Herrn 
sterben;  sie  ruhen  von  ihrer  Arbeit;  denn 
ihre  Werke  folgen  ihnen  nach." 


HERE  REST 
THE  REMAINS   OF 

WILLIAM  OTTERBEIN. 
BORN  JUNE  4,  1726; 

DEPARTED  THIS  LIFE  NOVEMBER  17,  1813 

AGED 

87  TEARS,  6  MONTHS,  13  DAYS. 

"  Blessed  are  the  dead  tliat  die  in  the 
Lord;  for  they  rest  from  their  labors,  and 
their  works  do  follow  them." 


Four  months  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Otterbein,  the  Methodist  confer- 
ence met  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  On  the  last  day  of  the  conference 
Bishop  Asbury,  who  was  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Otterbein, 
preached  a  sermon  in  Otterbein's  pulpit.  Referring  to  the  occasion  in 
his  journal,  Asbury  said,  "  By  request,  I  discoursed  on  the  character 
of  the  angel  of  the  church  of  Philadelphia,  in  allusion  to  William  Otter- 
bein, —  the  holy,  the  great  Otterbein,  —  whose  funeral  discourse  it  was 
intended  to  be.  Solemnity  marked  the  silent  meeting  in  the  German 
church,  where  were  assembled  the  members  of  our  conference  and  many 
of  the  clergy  of  the  city.  Forty  years  have  I  known  the  retiring  mod- 
esty of  this  man  of  God  towering  majestic  above  his  fellows  in  learn- 
ing, wisdom,  and  grace,  yet  seeking  to  be  known  only  to  God  and  the 
people  of  God." 

Otterbein  was  not  a  partisan.  "  A  man  of  a  more  catholic  spirit  never 
lived,"  —  pure  in  character,  simple  and  easy  in  his  manners,  benevolent 
in  heart,  and  humble  in  spirit.  Though  persecuted  through  the  most  of 
his  ministerial  life,  he  did  not  murmur  nor  complain.  When  denounced 
as  an  "  enthusiast,"  "  false  prophet,"  and  "  fanatic,"  he  would  weep  over 
his  enemies.  "  But  it  was  as  a  preacher  and  as  an  evangelist  that  he 
most  excelled."  When  he  was  eighty  years  old.  Bishop  Newcomer  heard 
him  preach,  and  thus  speaks  of  it :  "  Oh,  what  feelings  penetrate  my  soul 
whenever  this  old  servant  of  Christ  declares  the  counsel  of  God  !  In 
depth  of  erudition  and  in  perspicuity  of  thought  he  is  unique  and  match- 
less." Two  generations  have  passed  since  that  sainted  father  in  Israel 
fell  asleep  in  Jesus,  but  his  works  still  follow  him.  —  J.  W. 


608     THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.  [Period  V. 

LIFE   X.    JAMES   MANNING. 

A.  D.  1738-A.  D.  1791.       BAPTIST,  ^  AMERICA. 

James  Manning  has  been  selected  to  represent  the  Baptists  of  the 
colonial  period  in  American  history  ;  not  that  he  represents  them  alto- 
gether, but  rather  that,  rising  from  among  them,  he  led  them  into  the 
new  era  which  followed.  He  closed  the  first  volume  of  their  history  and 
opened  a  new  page.  The  son  of  the  earlier  time,  he  was  the  father  of 
a  new  generation  of  better  training  and  ampler  fortune.  His  active  and 
public  life  covers  the  period  between  1762  and  1791,  during  which  the 
colonies  became  a  nation,  and  many  new  paths  opened  to  American  life 
and  religion.  He  thus  belonged  to  both  periods,  and  to  the  transition 
from  the  one  to  the  other. 

There  is  another  name,  of  earlier  date,  related,  indeed,  to  the  very 
His  predecessor  beginnings  of  colonial  history,  and  illustrating  the  same 
Roger  Williams,  towu  of  Providence  and  colony  of  Rhode  Island  where 
Manning  spent  his  years,  which  might  for  some  purposes  take  the  first 
and  representative  place.  The  history  of  the  Baptists  in  America  begins 
with  Roger  Williams.  He  had  not  always  been  of  them,  and  was  not 
long  with  them.  He  came  from  England  a  Puritan  and  a  Separatist. 
At  Plymouth  and  Salem  he  had  been  an  accepted  minister  of  the  Word, 
but  his  advanced  opinions  gave  offense,  and  provoked  the  authorities  to 
banish  him  from  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  He  passed  beyond 
its  borders,  and  planted  a  colony  and  a  state  on  the  shores  of  Narragan- 
sett.  Most  of  his  companions,  like  himself,  were  dissenters  from  the 
ecclesiastical  order  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  had  taken  refuge  with  him 
for  sake  of  a  larger  liberty  of  opinion.  He  says,  "  Having,  in  a  sense  of 
God's  merciful  providence  unto  me  in  my  distress,  called  the  place  Prov- 
idence, I  desired  it  might  be  for  a  shelter  for  persons  distressed  of  con- 
science." ^  Here  he  received  lay  baptism  at  the  hands  of  one  of  his 
associates,  and  with  eleven  other  persons  joined  in  the  formation  of  a 
Baptist  church,  the  first  in  America,  with  but  one  other  like  it,  as  far  as 
we  know,  in  England.  This  was  in  the  year  1638-1639.  In  a  short 
time  he  separated  himself  from  all  churches,  becoming  a  "  seekex-." 

Williams,  not  only  as  the  progenitor  of  a  long  and  numerous  line  of 
Baptists  in  America,  but  on  account  of  his  early  and  courageous  advo- 
cacy of  entire  freedom  in  religion,  and  his  establishment  of  a  colony  and 
a  state,  the  first  in  the  civilized  world  to  incoi'porate  these  principles  into 
its  law  and  practice,  is  an  illustrious  figure  in  our  early  history.  The 
Baptists  have  always  counted  his  among  their  honorable  names,  and  have 
set  him  forward  as  their  representative.     And  yet  he  gave  them  no  con- 

1  Deed  of  R.  Williams  to  his  associates  in  1638,  Rhode  Island  Colonial  Records,  i.  22. 


Cent.  XVII.-XTX.]  JAMES  MANNING.  609 

scious  impulse,  and  would  have  disclaimed  all  praise  of  leadership.  In 
fact,  prior  to  1740,  the  Baptists  had  had  small  growth,  and  only  such  as 
comes  of  itself,  without  the  championship  of  leaders,  or  the  strength 
and  prodiactiveness  of  association.  In  that  year  George  Whitefield 
landed  at  Newport,  in  Rhode  Island,  and  became  for  thirty  years  one  of 
the  principal  agencies  in  a  mighty  spiritual  movement,  one  of  whose 
issues  was  a  more  rapid  multiplication  of  the  churches  of  the  Baptists. 
In  1734,  at  the  time  of  the  great  awakening  under  Jonathan  Edwards, 
there  were  but  fifteen  Baptist  churches  in  New  England  ; -^  and  in  1740, 
when  Whitefield  began  to  lift  up  here  his  trumpet,  there  were  only 
thirty-seven,  with  less  than  three  thousand  members,  in  all 

.  ,  .  Baptist  progress 

North  America.     Fifty  years  later,  in   1790,  when  Man-   in  the  days  of 
ning  was  just  closing  his  life,  there  were  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-two   churches,  with  nearly  sixty-five  thousand  members,^  they 
having  multiplied  twenty-fold. 

The  early  Baptists  were  inconsiderable  in  numbers,  their  ministry  had 
little  learning,  and  they  suffered  the  manifold  disabilities  of  a  dissenting 
minority.  But  before  the  Revolution,  indeed,  on  the  heels  of  the  Great 
Awakening,  their  more  rapid  growth  began.  An  acute  and  learned  writer 
in  the  "North  American  Review"^  (1876),  in  reviewing  religion  in 
America  for  the  first  century  of  the  republic,  ascribes  this  growth  to 
"  two  distinct  causes  :  "  One  was,  that  they  insisted  on  a  personal  ex- 
perience of  religion  as  the  absolute  condition  of  admission  to  the 
church  of  Christ,  the  characteristic  doctrine  of  the  Great  Awakenings 
But  besides  this,  there  was  another  and  perhaps  more  potent  reason  : 
"  A  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  Baptists  was  the  energy  with  which 
they  extolled  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  and  advocated  an  unlearned  minis- 
try. On  this  latter  point,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  Congregational- 
ists  took  high  ground.  Even  Edwards,  the  most  powerful  promoter  of 
the  revival,  woxild  not  allow  that  a  man  should  enter  the  pulpit  '  who 
had  had  no  education  at  college.'  Against  what  seemed  to  them  an  un- 
righteous prejudice  in  favor  of  '  the  original  tongues,'  both  Separatists 
and  Baptists  strenuously  maintained  '  that  every  brother  that  is  qualified 
by  God  has  a  right  to  preach  according  to  the  measure  of  faith.' 
'  Lowly  preaching '  became  their  favorite  watch-word,  and  it  marked 
the  beginning  of  a  popular  tendency  destined  to  make  itself  deeply  felt 
in  the  religious  institutions  of  New  England.  The  Baptists  not  only 
gained  a  controlling  influence  with  a  devout  but  humble  class,  who  had 
little  appetite  for  the  elaborate  discussions  of  the  Congregational  divines, 
but  they  were  powerfully  helped  by  the  prejudice  which  exists,  in  every 
community,  against  the  exclusiveness  of  superior  culture.  The  rapid 
growth  of  the  Baptists  was,  in  large  part,  a  democratic  protest,  and  it  is 

1  Hovey,  Life  of  Backus,  261. 

2  Cramp,  Baptist  History,  527. 

8  North  American  Review,  January,  1876,  art.  i.,  by  Prof.  J.  L.  Diman. 

39 


610  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

a  noticeable  fact  that  even  during  the  war  their  numbers  steadily  aug- 
mented." Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  this  view,  it  is  also  true 
that  at  the  same  time  with  the  expansion  of  this  denomination  of  Chris- 
ManniDga  tians,  there  appeared  among  them  a  movement  towards  a 

leader  in  educa-  higher  education,  in  which  James  Manning  was  a  leader. 
He  was  born  in  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  October  22, 
1738,  and  graduated  at  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  at  Princeton,  Sep- 
tember 29,  1762.  At  the  time  of  his  graduation  there  were  but  six  col- 
leges in  the  country.  Of  these,  two  were  in  New  England  under  the 
control  of  the  Congregationalists,  one  in  New  Jersey  under  the  Presby- 
terians, and  three  under  the  Episcopalians  iu  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Virginia.  It  was  natural,  with  a  rising  desire  for  better  education 
among  a  growing  Christian  communion,  that  they  should  desire  a  college 
of  their  own.  This  desire  came  to  the  surface  most  strongly  among  the 
Baptists  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  organized  an  association  of  churches, 
which  was  the  only  one  in  the  country  for  nearly  sixty  years.  The 
Philadelphia  Association  had  taken  action  and  started  a  movement  to- 
wards a  college,  looking  to  Rhode  Island- as  the  colony  where,  from  the 
religious  persuasion  of  a  large  number  of  the  people,  and  the  liberal 
spirit  of  its  government  from  the  beginning,  they  would  be  most  likely 
to  find  an  open  field  and  friendly  encouragement.  Manning  went  there 
in  July,  1763,  Undoubtedly  under  the  impulse  of  this  action,  and  by  his 
efforts  the  project  of  "  a  seminary  of  polite  literature  subject  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Baptists  "  was  set  on  foot,  and  a  liberal  charter  obtained 
from  the  General  Assembly.  It  was  called  Rhode  Island  College,  re- 
ceiving its  present  name  of  Brown  University  in  honor  of  its  greatest 
benefactor  forty  years  later,  in  1804.  Manning  had  been  previously 
ordained  to  the  ministry,  and  in  the  spring  of  1764  he  removed  to  War- 
ren, a  town  not  far  from  Providence,  where  he  combined  the  offices  of 
•pastor  of  the  church  and  president  of  the  college  for  a  number  of  years. 
The  church  had  been  formed  as  a  result  of  his  preaching,. and  he  had 
'been  appointed  president  of  the  college,  having  first  undertaken  a  school 
which  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  college.  The  transfer  of  the 
college  to  Providence,  a  step  which  proved  of  the  greatest  advantage 
to  the  infant  institution,  was  a  great  trial  to  him.  "  So  affectionately 
desirous,"  says  Professor  Goddard,  "was  Dr.  Manning  of  the  people  of 
his  care,  many  of  whom  had,  through  his  instrumentality,  exjjerienced 
the  transforming  efficacy  of  the  religion  of  Christ,  that  he  could  not  find 
it  in  his  heart  to  leave  them.  To  avoid  a  separation  so  painful  to  his 
sensibilities,  he  even  proposed  to  resign  the  elevated  position  to  which 
he  had  just  been  appointed.  To  this  proposition  his  infiuential  friends 
would  not  listen,  and  they  persuaded  him  to  abandon  all  thought  of  re- 
signing the  presidentship.  While  we  are  compelled  to  think  that  his 
decision  was  a  wise  one,  we  honor  the  feelings  which  well-nigh  betrayed 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JAMES  MANNING.  611 

his  judgment.  Under  similar  circumstances,  how  few  men  would  have 
faltered ;  how  few  would  have  sought  to  renounce  the  pathway  to  literary 
and  social  distinction  for  the  unambitious  career  of  a  village  pastor !  " 

Bnt  in  Providence  a  larger  opportunity  was  prepared  for  him,  and  he 
found  ample  scope  for  his  gifts  as  a  preacher  as  well  as  an  Manning's  work 
educator.  For  three  quarters  of  a  century  the  church  ^°  Providence, 
founded  by  Roger  Williams  had  been  the  only  one  of  any  persuasion. 
When  Manning  removed  to  Providence,  in  May,  1770,  it  was  more  than 
one  hundred  and  thirty  years  old,  and  yet  in  a  population  of  four  thou- 
sand people  it  had  but  one  hundred  and  eighteen  members.  For  all  this 
time  it  had  been  going  on,  receiving  neither  from  within  nor  from  with- 
out any  vigorous  impulse.  Its  ministers  had  been  natives,  bred  on  the 
spot,  and  were  generally  in  advanced  years,  at  work  for  their  daily  bread, 
and  without  special  training.  Like  the  early  Baptists  and  Quakers  in 
England,  they  discarded  singing  and  music  in  worship.^  Moreover,  very 
early,  and  almost  from  the  start,  the  church  had  adopted  the  rite  of  im- 
position of  hands  in  connection  with  baptism,  and  insisted  upon  it  as 
prerequisite  to  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  had  been  ex- 
tremely rigorous  as  to  this  rite,  and  refused  prayer  or  communion  with 
those  who  did  not  conform  to  the  practice.  This  singular  tenacity  for 
an  essential  rite  was  the  sign  of  a  contracted  spirit,  and  very  likely  the 
reason  for  a  contracted  influence.  Whatever  more  liberal  views  may 
have  existed  were  suppressed.  But  the  advent  of  President  Manning 
emancipated  the  more  liberal  tendencies,  and  started  the  church  on  the 
higher  career  which  it  has  followed  for  more  than  a  century.  His  com- 
ing was  like  a  fresh  breeze.  The  old  torpor  began  to  stir.  The  old 
strictness  relaxed.  Religion  was  powerfully  revived.  The  college  came 
bringing  fresh  impulses  and  new  demands.  It  joined  itself  to  the  church 
in  many  ways.  A  meeting-house  was  erected  "  for  the  public  worship  of 
Almighty  God,  and  also  for  holding  Commencement  in,"  so  spacious  and 
elegant  that  it  still  stands,  five  years  more  than  a  century  old,  the  most 
notable  structure  for  religious  purposes  in  a  city  with  a  hundred  thou- 
sand people,  though  built  in  a  village  with  no  more  than  four  thousand 
inhabitants.  Manning  found  congenial  spirits,  men  of  enlarged  views, 
who  could  appreciate  a  minister  of  more  liberal  training,  and  whose 
hands  were  ready  for  works  of  improvement.  His  very  first  iSunday 
brought  to  a  crisis  the  differences  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  imposition 
of  hands  as  requisite  to  communion.  The  minister  and  a  section  of  the 
church  holding  the  narrower  and  stringent  view  withdrew,  and  he  was 
at  once  invited  to  take  pastoral  charge.  Thus  his  love  for  the  active 
ministry  of  the  Word  was  gratified,  while  he  was  called  to  the  front  as 
leader  in  an  enterprise   of  education  most  important  to   that  growing 

1  W.  Tallack,  George  Fox  and  the  Early  Baptists;  R.  Barclay,  The  Inner  Life  of  the 
Religious  Societies  of  the  Commonwealth. 


612  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

brancli  of  the  Christian  church  to  which  he  belonged.  He  became  at 
once  the  minister  of  the  oldest  church  of  the  Baptists  in  America,  and 
president  of  their  first  college,  and  no  position  could  be  more  command- 
ing- 

And  he  had  admirable  fitness  for  the  position.  He  was  of  impressive 
Manning's  per-  pi'^seuce,  of  large  and  handsome  person,  of  elegant  and 
sonai  gifts.  genial  manners.     His  learning,  if  not  extensive,  was  suf- 

ficient, and  his  eloquence  in  all  public  address  very  effective.  He  was 
the  first  clergyman  of  liberal  education  who  had  ministered  to  the  con- 
gregation. To  all  his  gifts  was  added  the  dignity  of  his  office.  And 
above  all  was  an  ardor  of  piety  and  an  excellence  of  character  which 
allayed  prejudice  and  won  respect.  Though  he  was  but  thirty-two  years 
old,  his  talents  and  his  attainments  gave  him  prominence  at  a  time  when 
there  were  few  educated  clergymen  in  his  denomination,  and  few  persons 
equal  to  leadership  in  an  educational  enterprise,  while  his  youth  lent  a 
charm  and  a  power  quite  inspiring  in  such  a  community. 

In  the  winter  of  1774,  while  the  people  were  engaged  in  the  erection 
of  the  large  meeting-house  modeled  after  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields  in 
London,  a  power  greater  than  Manning's  was  felt  among  them.  He 
writes  to  a  friend  in  England,  "In  the  beginning  of  the  winter  of  1774, 
it  pleased  the  Lord  in  a  most  remarkable  manner  to  revive  his  work  in  the 
town  of  Providence,  and  more  especially  among  the  people  of  my  charge. 
Such  a  time  I  never  before  saw.  Numbers  were  pricked  to  the  heart. 
Our  public  assemblies  by  night  and  by  day  were  crowded,  and  the  audi- 
tors seemed  to  hear  as  for  the  life  of  their  souls.  It  was  frequently  an 
hour  before  I  could  get  from  the  pulpit  to  the  door,  on  account  of  the 
numbers  thronging  to  have  an  opportunity  of  stating  the  condition  of 
their  minds.  Never  before  did  I  experience  such  happy  hours  in  the 
pulpit.  Day  and  night  my  dear  people  resorted  to  my  house  to  open  to 
me  the  state  of  their  souls,  insomuch  that  it  was  with  difficulty  I  could 
at  any  time  attend  to  secular  business ;  and  I  think  I  may  say  with  truth 
that  I  had  as  little  inclination  as  leisure  for  it,  further  than  absolute 
duty  required.  And  what  added  peculiarly  to  my  happiness  was  that 
the  Lord  visited  the  college  as  remarkably  as  the  congregation.  Fre- 
quently, when  I  went  to  the  recitation  room,  I  would  find  nearly  all  the 
students  assembled  and  joining  in  prayer  and  praise  to  God.  Instead  of 
my  lectures  on  logic  and  philosophy  they  would  request  me  to  speak  to 

them  of  the  things  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God In  the  space 

of  about  six  months  I  baptized  more  than  one  hundred  persons 

Thus  the  glorious  work  continued,  and  rather  increased,  until  the  fatal 
19th  of  April,  when  the  affair  at  Lexington  happened,  which,  like  an  elec- 
tric shock,  filled  every  mind  with  horror  and  compassion."  ^ 

The  war  of  the  Revolution,  precipitated  by   "  the  affair  at  Lexington," 

1  Guild,  Manning  and  Brown  University,  2'46. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JAMES  MANNING.  613 

through  all  its  hard  years  of  public  distress,  arrested  the  springing  life 

of  church  and  college.     Fortunately,  the  meeting-house  had 

been  finished  and  dedicated  between  the  battles  of  Lexino^-   triot  in  political 

life 

ton  and  Bunker  Hill,  and  the  church  had  a  home,  though 
its  members  were  scattered  and  its  life  languished.  The  college  was 
closed,  and  its  building  was  used  for  a  barrack  or  a  hospital  for  soldiers. 
There  were  no  students  and  no  Commencements.  No  degrees  were  con- 
ferred till  1786.  It  was  in  that  year  that  Dr.  Manning  was  elected  a 
delegate  to  Congress.  He  had  few  inclinations  for  political  life,  but  he 
ardently  sympathized  with  his  struggling  country,  and  his  position  and 
character  drew  to  him  the  spontaneous  confidence  and  suffrage  of  his  fel- 
low-citizens. The  proceedings  of  the  Congress  were  not  public,  and  what 
part  Dr.  Manning  took  in  its  deliberations  we  do  not  know.  That  he 
filled  his  place  with  the  dignity  of  a  gentleman,  the  uprightness  of  a 
Christian,  and  the  fidelity  of  a  patriot  is  clear  from  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
life. 

His  life  was  now  near  a  sudden  and  premature  close.  He  seems  al- 
most to  have  expected  it,  although  he  was  only  in  his  fifty-fourth  year, 
and  bearing  upon  his  person  the  signs  of  undecayed  vigor  and  health. 
In  April,  1791,  he  notified  the  corporation  of  the  college  of  his  desire  to 
be  relieved  from  his  office  when  a  successor  should  be  appointed.  On  the 
last  Sabbath  of  the  same  month  he  also  preached  a  sermon  of  farewell  to 
the  church.  On  the  24th  of  July  following,  while  engaged  in  prayer  in 
his  home  on  Sunday  morning,  he  was  taken  with  apoplexy,  and  with  no 
revival  of  consciousness  soon  passed  to  his  eternal  rest,  as  "universally 
lamented,"  says  the  historian  of  the  Baptists,  Isaac  Backus,  "  as  any  man 
that  I  have  known." 

For  nearly  thirty  years  he  had  been  in  Rhode  Island,  devoting  his 
life  to  the  highest  interests.  He  had  given  a  new  impulse  to  an  an- 
cient church,  which  became  one  of  the  first  as  it  was  the  oldest  of  the 
communion  to  which  it  belonged.  In  the  birth  and  beginnings  of  a 
college  which  for  two  generations  was  the  only  one  belonging  to  Amer- 
ican Baptists,  he  had  the  principal  part.  His  learning,  his  powers, 
his  character,  his  fidelity  in  all  trusts,  his  sympathy  with  the  depressed 
and  feeble  churches  of  his  own  religious  persuasion,  his  leadership  in 
their  aspirations  after  liberal  education,  gave  him  great  honor  in  his 
own  day,  and  a  position  of  singular  eminence,  if  not  of  primacy,  in 
the  generation  of  Baptists  which  closed  the  colonial  and  began  the  na- 
tional period  of  our  history.  In  the  long  time  between  Williams  and 
Manning  there  arose  among  them  no  name  more  illustrious,  and  no  per- 
son who  more  fitly  and  more  nobly  represents  them.  One  imagines  that 
if  Williams  had  remained  among  them  and  of  them,  with  his  genius,  his 
university  training,  his  enthusiasm,  so  strong  in  the  courage  of  his  opin- 
ions, so  magnetic  in  his  influence  over  others,  devoting  the  fifty  years 


614  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

of  his  life  in  America  to  the  propagation  of  their  sentiments  and  the  in- 
crease of  their  churches,  the  future  would  have  been  different,  and  Man- 
ning might  have  entered  on  quite  another  inheritance,  and  found  his  work 
in  a  good  measure  anticipated.  But  Pi'ovidence  is  wiser  and  stronger 
than  any  man,  or  any  number  of  men,  and  takes  its  own  hours  and  ways, 
and  waits  till  it  is  ready,  and  times  and  locates,  arrests  and  hurries,  pre- 
cedes and  follows,  according  to  a  wisdom  and  a  will  of  its  own.  These 
men  both  served  its  jjurpose,  and  made  a  way  for  others,  a  way  for  the 
conception  of  Christianity  which  they  had  embraced  to  advance  to  a 
wider  dominion  and  a  history  in  missions,  in  education,  quite  beyond 
their  dreams.  —  S.  L.  C. 


LIFE  XII.     FRANCIS   ASBURY. 

A.    D.    1745-A.    D.    1816.       METHODIST    EPISCOPAL, AMERICA. 

Francis  Asbury,  the  pioneer  bishop  of  America,  was  born  in  the 
parish  of  Handsworth,  Staffordshire,  England,  August  20,  1745.  He 
was  of  humble  extraction,  his  father  being  a  gardener  by  occupation. 
Both  the  elder  Asbury  and  his  wife  were  members  of  the  Established 
Church,  and  they  were  careful  —  the  mother  especially  —  to  indoctrinate 
their  son  in  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  gospel.  There  were  but  two 
children  in  the  family,  Francis,  and  a  sister,  who  however  died  in  in- 
fancy. But  though  he  thus  came  in  for  a  double  share  of  tenderness  on 
the  part  of  his  mother,  he  does  not  seem  to  have  become  in  any  sense  a 
spoiled  child  because  an  only  one.  Perhaps  this  is  to  be  attributed  to 
the  truly  religious  atmosphere  of  his  home,  which  was  sanctified  by 
daily  reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  prayer.  As  soon  as  he  was  old 
enough  he  was  sent  to  .school,  his  father  affording  him  every  opjiortu- 
nity  within  his  means,  to  acquire  a  good  common  English  education,  but 
His  sufferings  as  ^^^  succcss  as  a  Student  was  not  what  could  have  been  de- 
a school-boy.  sired.  The  teacher  "  was  a  great  churl,"  and  beat  the  lad 
so  unmercifully  that  he  conceived  a  dislike  not  only  for  him,  but  for  his 
books  as  well,  and  at  length  became  quite  discouraged.  The  religious 
tendency  of  the  boy's  mind  became  quite  apparent  at  this  time.  After 
suffering  from  some  fresh  cruelty  inflicted  by  the  master,  oppressed  with 
the  shame  and  sorrow  consequent  upon  the  punishment,  he  used  to  re- 
tire, as  soon  as  he  could,  to  some  unfrequented  place,  and  there  pour  out 
his  heart  to  God  in  prayer.  He  became  quite  pensive  and  retiring,  a 
trait  of  character  for  which  he  was,  in  some  measure,  distinguished 
through  life. 

Finding  that  he  did  not  make  the  advancement  in  his  studies  which 
he  desired,  his  father  removed  him   from   school,  and  set  him  to  work 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         FRANCIS  ASBURY.  615 

under  the  direction  of  a  person  who  appeared  to  understand  him  better 
than  the  teacher  had  done,  and  who  treated  him  kindly.  The  change  of 
treatment  had  a  beneficial  eflFect  upon  the  boy,  which  soon  became  ap- 
parent; for,  while  he  did  not  neglect  his  work,  he  also  soon  commenced 
to  apply  himself  to  reading  duriiag  his  hours  of  leisure,  and  rose  rapidly 
in  the  estimation  of  those  with  whom  he  was  associated.  No  better 
proof  is  required  of  the  carefulness  with  which  his  parents  had  in- 
structed him  in  religion,  or  of  his  own  docile  disposition  and  religious 
bent  of  mind,  than  the  fact  that,  no  matter  how  provoked,  he  never 
uttered  "  an  oath,"  and  always  scrupulously  adhered  to  the  truth.  A 
moral,  upright  boy,  young  Asbury's  religious  principles  may  be  said  to 
have  been  firmly  established  by  the  time  he  was  fourteen  years  of  age. 

About  this  time  he  became  very  much  interested  in  the  conversations 
of  a  pious  man  who  occasionally  visited  at  his  father's  house ;  but,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Wesleys,  he  seems  to  have  been  more  indebted  to  his 
mother  than  to  any  one  else  for  the  religious  impi'essions  made  ujjon  his 
susceptible  mind.  Having  become  anxious  for  his  personal  salvation,  he 
now  entered  more  fully  on  a  life  of  constant  prayer  and  serious  reflec- 
tion. 

The  fame  of  John  "Wesley  and  the  Methodists  had  reached  this  hum- 
ble StaiFordshire  home,  but  as  the  new  people  were  everywhere  spoken 
against,  young  Asbury  was  somewhat  doubtful  as  to  the  propriety  of 
going  near  them.  Upon  consulting  his  mother,  however,  he  found  that 
she  entertained  a  favorable  opinion  of  them.  Indeed,  she  recommended 
her  son  to  attend  their  meetings  and  judge  for  himself,  as  to  whether 
the  influence  they  exerted  was  for  good  or  ill.  An  opportunity  soon  pre- 
sented itself.  The  Methodists  were  to  have  a  meeting  some  miles  dis- 
tant from  his  father's  house,  and  thither  he  went  in  company  with  a 
friend.  Arrived  at  the  place  of  worship,  everything  he  saw  excited  his 
surprise.  From  beginning  to  end  the  entire  service  was  altogether  dif- 
ferent from  any  to  which  the  lad  had  hitherto  been  accustomed.  The 
preaching  place,  instead  of  being  a  church  or  chapel,  was  a  private  resi- 
dence, the  people  knelt  at  time  of  prayer,  and  in  response  to  the  earnest 
petitions  of  the  preacher,  many  of  them  said  "Amen;"  the  congrega- 
tion sang  without  a  choir,  and  the  peculiar  melody  of  the  tunes,  and  the 
adaptation  of  the  words  of  the  hymns  to  the  tunes,  not  merely  surprised, 
but  delighted  him,  and,  to  cap  the  climax,  the  preacher  "  prayed  without 
the  use  of  a  prayer-book,"  and  preached  without  "  a  sermon-book."  But 
though  all  this  appeared  very  strange  to  the  young  listener,  he  never- 
theless considered  it  a  very  good  way,  particularly  as  the  preacher  not 
only  spoke  readily  but  clearly  as  well,  pointing  out  the  plan  of  salvation, 
the  necessity  of  faith  in  Christ,  and  the  "  confidence  and  assurance  "  of 
the  children  of  God.  The  inquiring  mind  of  young  Asbury  at  once 
grasped  this  idea  of  the  confidence  and  assurance  of  God's  children,  and 


616  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

he  determined  not  to  rest  till  he  obtained  it.  Upon  his  return  home  with 
Enters  upon  a  *^^^  purpose  in  view,  he  went  with  a  young  friend,  of  like 
religious  life.  frame  of  mind  with  himself,  into  his  father's  barn  to  pray 
for  the  desired  blessing,  and  in  answer  to  the  petition,  he  says,  "  I  believe 
the  Lord  pardoned  my  sins  and  justified  my  soul."  He  was  then  about 
sixteen  years  of  age.  About  a  year  after  his  conversion  he  began  to  ex- 
ercise his  gifts  as  a  local  preacher,  and  when  between  twenty-one  and 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  commenced  his  regular  ministerial  careei 
under  the  direction  of  Wesley. 

From  the  beginning  it  was  evident  to  a  person  of  Wesley's  discern- 
ment that  Asbury  had  within  him  the  elements  of  true  greatness. 
Though  no  collegian,  not  even  an  educated  man,  as  the  term  is  under- 
stood, his  pulpit  efforts  were  from  the  outset  highly  appreciated  by  the 
people.  Crowds  attended  his  preaching,  and  competent  judges  were  sur- 
prised at  his  ready  utterance  and  his  power  in  moving  his  audiences. 
He  was  therefore  gladly  received  on  the  various  circuits  to  which  Wes- 
ley appointed  him ;  and  so  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  of  the  times  too, 
was  the  zeal  with  which  he  entered  on  his  ministry,  that  for  some  years 
he  would  not  distract  his  mind  from  what  he  believed  to  be  his  legitimate 
work,  or  leave  his  flock  long  enough  to  attend  the  sessions  of  the  con- 
ference. If  his  seniors  devised  and  planned  the  work,  he  was  content  to 
carry  out  those  plans  though  he  had  no  hand  in  the  planning. 

He  was  unassuming  in  manner,  and  quite  prepossessing  in  his  personal 
appearance.  Though  always  sedate,  as  was  the  manner  of  the  early 
Methodist  preachers,  he  was  nevertheless  cheerful.  In  dress  he  was  neat, 
without  any  appearance  of  foppishness.  In  demeanor  he  was  courteous, 
and  always  ready  to  evince  his  sympathy  for  those  who  were  cast  down 
in  feelings,  or  who  were  afflicted  or  oppressed ;  and  so  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, he  appears  to  have  been  impartial  in  the  administration  of  disci- 
pline. Such  being  the  characteristics  of  the  man,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Chosen  by  Wes-  Wesley  should  have  considered  him  competent  to  fill  the 
ley  for  America,  position  which  he  shortly  after  assigned  to  him  in  America. 
Accounts  of  the  religious  destitution  of  the  American  colonies  had 
reached  Asbury  in  his  English  home  and  fired  him  with  a  zealous  de- 
sire to  go  to  their  relief,  so  that  when  Wesley  approached  him  upon 
the  subject,  he  was  as  willing  to  go  upon  the  mission  as  Wesley  was  to 
send  him. 

In  1771  Wesley,  in  compliance  with  the  earnest  solicitations  of  the 
American  societies  for  more  missionaries,  laid  their  case  before  his  con- 
ference, and  asked  for  volunteers ;  and  in  response  to  this  call,  Francis 
Asbury  and  Richard  Wright  offered  themselves.  They  were  accepted, 
and  the  supervision  of  the  entire  work  in  America  was  entrusted  by  Mr. 
Wesley  to  Mr.  Asbury.  Then  they  immediately  commenced  to  make 
preparation  for  their  voyage. 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]  FRANCIS  ASBURY.  617 

And  now  commences  a  new  epoch  in  the  life  of  Francis  Asbury.  He 
goes  to  America  as  Mr.  Wesley's  I'epresentative  there,  and  is  to  enter 
upon  a  new  and  altogether  untried  field  of  operations.  In  many  respects 
the  old  methods  and  plans  of  working,  so  well  adapted  to  the  people  of 
the  Old  World,  will  be  utterly  impracticable  in  the  New.  Hereafter, 
in  most  cases  his  plans  must  be  determined  by  the  exigencies  of  the  case 
in  hand  ;  he  will  have  no  precedent  by  which  to  be  guided.  In  short,  it 
may  be  said  his  actual  career  is  but  now  begun. 

But  short  time  was  spent  in  leave-taking  ;  a  few  of  his  more  intimate 
friends  were  visited,  an  affectionate  and  final  earthly  farewell  was  taken 
of  his  parents,  and  then  he  set  out  for  Bristol,  where  he  remained  from 
the  latter  end  of  August  till  the  4th  of  September,  when  he  and  his  as- 
sociate, Mr.  Wright,  set  sail.  Such  unwavering  faith  had  Asbury  in 
God's  providential  care  for  him,  and  in  the  genuineness  of  his  call  to 
the  work,  that  though  so  insufficiently  supplied  with  means  that  by  the 
time  he  reached  Bristol  he  had  not  one  penny  in  his  purse,  he  neverthe- 
less felt  assured  that  funds  for  his  journey  would  be  provided  in  due 
time.  Nor  was  he  disappointed,  for  some  friends  in  the  city  supplied 
him  with  the  necessary  clothing,  and  ten  pounds.  "  Thus,"  says  he, 
"  I  found  by  experience  that  He  will  provide  for  those  who  trust  in 
Him." 

During  his  protracted  voyage,  however,  lasting  nearly  two  months, 
Mr.  Asbury  found  that  what  was  sufficient  clothing  for  comfort  in  Bristol 
was  very  insufficient  for  one  exposed  to  the  cold  blasts  of  the  boisterous 
Atlantic ;  but  in  mid-ocean  no  oversight  on  this  point  could  be  remedied, 
and  he  endured  the  discomforts  of  his  position  with  a  spirit  befitting  one 
who  had  resolved  to  "  endure  hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ." 
The  captain  treated  both  him  and  Wright  courteously,  permitting  them  to 
preach  on  board  when  they  desii-ed  to  do  so,  which  they  accordingly  did 
several  times.  The  responsibility  resting  upon  him  in  view  of  the  mis- 
sion he  had  undertaken  to  an  unknown  people  occasioned  him  consider- 
able anxiety,  but  he  wrote,  "  I  have  great  cause  to  believe  that  I  am  not 
running  before  I  am  sent." 

On  the  27th  of  October  the  missionaries  landed  at  Philadelphia,  where 
Asbury  preached,  and  after  spending  a  few  days  in  the  city  jjgaches  Phiia- 
and  vicinity,  where  they  were  treated  very  kindly,  they  pro-  <ieiphia. 
ceeded  to  New  York,  visiting  Staten  Island,  en  route.  In  New  York, 
too,  they  were  cordially  received,  and  Asbury  at  once  set  to  work  to  gather 
accurate  information  concerning  the  strength  and  requirements  of  the  so- 
cieties, in  order  that  he  might  send  a  correct  report  to  Wesley.  At  this 
time  (1771)  the  Methodist  societies  on  the  entire  continent  of  America 
numbered  only  about  six  hundred  members,  with  ten  jDreachers.  Of 
churches  there  were  very  few,  and  those  far  apart.  Their  principal  preach- 
ing places  were  court-houses  and  occasionally  private  houses,  barns,  or 


618  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

the  woods,  according  as  they  had  friends  or  influence.  How  widely  dif- 
ferent this  from  the  status  to  which  Methodism  had  attained  long  before 
Asbury's  death,  and  largely  through  his  instrumentality. 

But  though  Asbury  had  been  so  very  cordially  received  by  his  breth- 
ren on  his  arrival,  his  path  was  nevertheless  very  far  from  being  strewn 
with  roses.  His  view  of  administering  discipline  and  of  a  general  plan 
of  working  was  in  some  slight  particulars  different  from  theirs,  and 
occasionally  his  judgment  on  these  matters  was  questioned ;  but  while 
courteous  to  his  brethren,  he  was  also  firm  where  he  was  sure  he  was 
right,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  following  extracts  from  his  journal :  "  I  am 

fixed  to  the  Methodist  plan,  and  do  what  I  do  faithfully  as  to  God 

At  jjresent  I  am  dissatisfied.  I  judge  we  are  to  be  shut  iip  in  the  cities 
this  winter.  My  brethren  seem  unwilling  to  leave  the  cities,  but  I  think 
I  shall  show  them  the  way.  I  am  in  trouble,  and  more  trouble  is  at 
hand,  for  I  am  determined  to  make  a  stand  against  all  partiality."  That 
he  did  make  such  a  stand,  and  that  he  was  successful  in  preventing 
many  irregularities  from  creeping  into  the  church  at  this  period,  is 
mucli  to  his  credit  and  to  the  credit  of  those  associated  with  him,  even 
though  they  sometimes  differed  from  him  in  judgment.  His  preaching 
was  quite  as  acceptable  to  his  American  hearers  as  it  had  been  to  his 
English  hearers,  and  he  was  quite  as  zealous  in  the  discharge  of  his 
ministerial  duties  upon  this  side  of  the  ocean  as  he  had  been  upon  the 
other,  and  even  more  laborious.  To  make  up  for  lost  time  he  became  a 
diligent  student ;  and  that  his  studies  might  not  interfere  with  the  per- 
formance of  other  duties,  and  also  because  it  was  one  of  the  good  old 
"  Methodist  plans,"  to  which  ■  he  was  fixed,  he  became  an  early  riser. 
When  well  he  was  seldom  found  in  bed  after  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  he  often  rose  at  four.  The  hours  between  rising  and  breakfast 
were  given  to  prayer,  meditation,  and  reading,  and  in  order  to  utilize 
each  instant  he  often  continued  his  reading  on  horseback,  while  going 
from  one  appointment  to  another.  Being  still  a  young  map,  compara- 
tively speaking,  with  his  mind  in  full  vigor,  he  in  this  way  acquired  a 
large  amount  of  very  valuable  information,  which  he  wisely  funded  for 
future  use.  By  carefully  economizing  every  leisure  moment  in  this  way 
he  was  able  to  carry  on  an  extensive  correspondence,  and  post  his  jour- 
nal from  time  to  time. 

But  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  nation  was  at  hand,  and  the  events 
connected  therewith  very  materially  affected  Asbury,  and  influenced  his 
after  life. 

It  had  been  a  work  of  time  to  get  all  the  societies  into  the  exact  me- 
„   ^  ^.     ,         thodical  working  order  which  both  he  and  Wesley  desired, 

Hardships  dur-  =>  . 

ing  the  iievoiu-    and  Scarcely  was  this  object  attained  when  the  Revolutiou- 

tiouary  War.  "'  •'  ,        ,       •  a       • 

ary  War  began  to  loom  upon   the  horizon.     At  its  com- 
mencement a  few  of  the  leading  preachers  determined  to  return  to  Eng- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  FRANCIS  ASBURY.  619 

land  at  once,  but  while  Asbury  was  still  an  honest  Englishman,  he  was 
also  too  true-hearted  a  missionary  to  leave  his  flock  in  such  perilous 
times.  The  Methodist  societies  were  dearer  to  him  than  even  Old  Eng- 
land, or  his  much-loved  kindred  ;  and  beside  this,  his  own  utterances 
show  that  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the  colonists  in  their  struggle  ;  so 
he  determined  to  remain  and  await  the  issue.  But  neither  zeal  nor 
heroism  saved  him  from  reproach,  misaj^prehension,  and  annoyance.  lu 
some  of  the  States  he  was  forbidden  to  preach  at  all,  in  others  his  mo- 
tives for  remaining  were  aspersed,  and  for  a  year  he  had  to  take  refuge 
with  Judge  White  in  Delaware,  by  whose  hospitable  family  he  was 
treated  with  every  mark  of  respect.  Nor  did  he  alone  suffer  obloquy. 
Freeborn  Garretson  and  others  of  his  heroic  associates,  being  native- 
born,  hoped  that  they  might  be  allowed  to  continue  their  labors,  and 
attempted  to  do  so,  but  they  were  persecuted  and  imprisoned.  While 
Asbury  was  secreted  at  Judge  White's,  what  he  considered  his  legitimate 
work,  that  for  which  he  lived,  was  of  necessity  almost  entirely  given  up  ; 
though  when  he  dared  he  would  venture  out  to  pray  with  and  preach  to 
the  families  in  the  vicinity  of  the  judge's  mansion. 

At  last  the  terrible  storm  of  war  was  over,  and  Asbury  was  free  once 
more  to  go  where  he  would  about  his  Master's  business,  and  indefatiga- 
bly  as  ever  he  traveled  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  far  as  the  set- 
tlements extended,  striving  to  gather  in  again  the  flocks  which  had  been 
scattered  so  widely  during  those  long  years  of  bitter  strife  between  the 
two  countries.  Most  ably  and  faithfully  did  he  discharge  the  duties  of 
the  position  which  had  been  assigned  to  him  by  Wesley. 

The  Revolutionary  War  svpept  away  every  vestige  of  church  and  state 
connection  in  the  colonies  now  become  an  independent  nation,  and  also 
left  the  Methodist  societies  in  an  undesirable  condition  in  regard  to  gen- 
eral organization.  In  consequence  of  this,  Wesley,  who  now  felt  him- 
self untrammeled,  so  far,  at  least,  as  America  was  concerned,  by  his  con- 
nection with  the  state  church  in  England,  proceeded  to  make  provision 
for  the  organization  of  the  societies  into  a  regular  independent  church. 
To  this  end,  thei-efore,  he  ordained  Messrs.  Whatcoat  and  Vasey  elders, 
and  Dr.  Coke  general  superintendent,  giving  him  letters  of  episcopal 
authority,  and  commissioning  him  and  his  associates  named  above  to  pro- 
ceed to  America  and  ordain  Asbury  to  the  office  of  bishop,  and  also  to 
ordain  deacons  and  elders,  —  in  short,  to  organize  the  church  so  that  the 
people  might  receive  the  sacraments  from  their  own  pastors. 

As  soon  as  possible  after  Dr.  Coke's  arrival  a  general  conference  of 
the  American  preachers  was  called,  which  convened  at  Baltimore  De- 
cember 25,  1784,  when  Wesley's  scheme  was  heartily  con-  Asbury  becomes 
curred  in  and  Asbury  was  unanimously  elected  by  his  ^i^hop. 
American  brethren  themselves,  as  well  as  appointed  by  Wesley  one  of 
the  bishops  of  the  newly  organized  church,  which  was  entitled  the 
"Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 


620  THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Dr.  Coke,  who  had  been  ordained  by  Wesley,  aud  who  had  also  been 
elected  bishop  at  the  same  time  with  Asbury,  now  proceeded  to  ordain 
him  to  the  office  and  work  of  a  bishop,  and  who  that  has  carefully  traced 
Asbury's  subsequent  career  will  say  that  his  was  not  truly  an  apostolic 
episcopate,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  New  Testament  term  ?  Had  he 
traveled  weary  miles  undeterred  by  summer's  heat  or  winter's  cold,  by 
hunger  or  by  fear  of  danger,  had  he  crossed  wild  mountains  and  forded 
unbridged  rivers,  wooed  sleep  unsheltered  in  the  wilderness  or  on  the 
naked  floors  of  rude  frontier  cabins,  and  in  every  way  labored  diligently 
for  the  advancement  of  his  Master's  kingdom,  before  his  ordination  ; 
after  it  he  was  in  travels  and  in  sacrifices  and  in  labors  yet  more  abun- 
dant. Formerly  his  oversight  and  jurisdiction  had  been  somewhat  cir- 
cumscribed, and  his  labors,  even  then  Herculean,  were  sometimes  fol- 
lowed by  a  brief  season  of  rest ;  but  now  his  responsibility  for  the  over- 
sight of  all  the  societies  upon  the  continent  was  unshared  by  any  one 
during  the  absence  of  Dr.  Coke,  and  hereafter  there  would  be  no  season 
of  rest  as  long  as  the  physical  frame  would  bear  the  strain. 

January  3,  1785,  he  says,  "  Rode  fifty  miles  through  frost  and  snow  to 
Fairfax,  Virginia,  and  got  in  about  seven  o'clock."  Two  days  after : 
"  We  had  an  exceedingly  cold  ride  to  Prince  William,  little  less  than 
forty  miles,  and  were  nearly  two  hours  after  night  in  getting  to  Brother 
Hale's."  Again  next  day :  "  We  passed  Fauquier  Court-House  and  came 
to  the  north  branch  of  the  Rappahannock,  which  we  found  about  waist- 
high  and  frozen  from  side  to  side.  We  pushed  the  ice  out  of  the  track, 
which  a  wagon,  well  for  us,  had  made,  and  got  over  safe."  Nor  were 
such  toils  and  dangers  rare  incidents  in  his  experience.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  made  a  tour  of  three  hundred  miles  on  horseback  in  nine  days, 
and  rode  forty  miles  of  the  route  without  food  for  man  or  beast.  He 
was  in  peril  from  robbers,  and  sometimes  fi'om  false  brethren.  His  ab- 
horrence of  slavery  and  his  manly  protests  against  the  "  sum  of  all  vil- 
lanies  "  brought  down  upon  him  the  enmity  of  those  in  favor  of  the 
peculiar  institution.  It  is  little  wonder  that  nature  would  from  time 
to  time  assert  herself,  and  let  even  a  bishop  know  that  her  laws  were 
not  to  be  broken  with  impunity,  that  after  all  he  must  care  a  little 
for  the  health  of  his  own  body,  as  well  as  for  the  health  of  the  church. 
In  consequence  of  his  constant  overwork  and  exposure,  he  was  fre- 
quently prostrated  by  severe  attacks  of  illness,  but  as  soon  as  he  was 
able  to  sit  upon  his  horse  he  was  up  again  and  off.  His  one  object  —  if 
we  may  be  allowed  to  count  three  in  one,  as  he  united  them  —  appeared 
to  be  the  salvation  of  the  people,  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  extension 
of  the  church. 

Asbury  was  possessed  of  uncommon  shrewdness,  aud  could  generally 
read  the  characters  of  those  he  met  at  first  sight,  but  not  being  infallible 
he  sometimes  found  himself  mistaken,  to  his  cost.     He  was  a  rigid  dis- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  FRANCIS  ASBURY.  621 

ciplinarian   of  a  military  cast,  and  occasionally  made   enemies   of  those 
who  ought  to  have  been  his  friends. 

Being  a  bachelor  himself,  he  had  not  as  much  sympathy  for  the  mar- 
ried preachers,  or  those  desiring  to  be  married,  as  he  ought,  perhaps,  to 
have  had,  for  they  certainly  endured  very  great  hardships.  His  remarks 
on  the  marriage  of  some  of  his  preachers  veere  occasionally  quite  amusing. 
A  case  or  two  in  point  will  suffice  as  illustration.  "  I  went,"  says  he, 
"  to  see  brother  Hartley  under  his  confinement,  who  is  in  jail  for  preach- 
ing, and  found  him  determined  to  marry.  He  thought  it  his  duty  before 
God.  I  could  only  advise  a  delay  till  he  was  released  from  impris- 
onment."    Later  on,  "  Brother  Hartley  is  now  married  and  begins   to 

care  for  his  wife I  find  the   care  of  a  wife  begins  to  humble  my 

young  friend,  and  makes  him  very  teachable.  I  have  thought  he  always 
carried  great  sail,  but  he  will  have  ballast  now."  Several  years  after, 
writing  of  another,  he  says,  "  Jonathan  Jackson  is  married.  0  thou 
pattern  of  celibacy,  art  thou  caught  ?  Who  can  resist  ?  Our  married 
man  was  forty  years  of  age."  Again,  six  years  later  than  the  date  of  the 
last  extract,  "  At   the   chapel  I  found  preachers  in  abundance,  and  a 

larger  congregation  than  I  had  expected Here  are  eight  young 

men  lately  married  ;  these  will  call  for  four  hundi'ed  dollars  per  annum 
additional,  —  so  we  go."  After  all,  his  excessive  admiration  of  celibacy 
resulted  from  an  ardent  desire  for  the  extension  of  the  work. 

As  the  years  came  and  went,  after  his  elevation  to  the  episcopacy, 
there  was  no  abatement  of  his  labors.  Little  wonder  then  ^sbury's  abun- 
that  he  was  impatient  of  laxity  in  others.  But  at  last  dant  labors. 
these  years  of  unremitting  toil  and  care,  accompanied  by  the  frequent 
attacks  of  illness  consequent  upon  them,  told  so  seriously  ujDon  the  phys- 
ical energies  of  the  now  aged  bishop,  that  it  was  deemed  imprudent  for 
him  to  pursue  his  journeyings  alone ;  accordingly  he  was  allowed  a  trav- 
eling companion,  whose  business  it  was  to  care  for  him  and  preach  when 
the  bishop  was  unable  to  do  so  himself. 

In  due  time,  as  the  work  extended,  first.  Bishop  Whatcoat,  and  at  his 
death,  Bishop  MacKendree,  were  elected  as  his  associates,  and  ordained 
to  the  same  office.  But  no  subdivision  of  labor,  no  amount  of  care  or 
attention,  could  prevent  the  infirmities  of  old  age  coming  on  apace.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1815,  Bishop  Asbury  was  so  worn  down  with 
years  and  ill  health,  that  it  was  with  great  difficulty  he  could  walk  from 
his  carriage  to  the  pulpit,  yet  notwithstanding  his  extreme  debility  he 
continued  to  preach,  and  to  plan  for  the  well-being  and  extension  of  the 
church.  At  Cincinnati  he  and  Bishop  MacKendree  had  "  a  long  and 
earnest  talk,"  relative  to  the  prospects  of  the  work  in  the  West,  and  his 
shrewdness  and  remarkable  foresight,  even  in  advanced  age,  are  proved  by 
the  following  extract,  very  nearly  among  the  last  in  his  voluminous  jour- 
nal.    He  says,  "  I  told  him  [MacKendree]  my  opinion  was  that  the 


622  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

western  part  of  the  empire  would  be  the  glory  of  America  for  the  poor 
and  pious ;  that  it  ought  to  be  marked  out  for  five  couferences,  to  wit : 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  Holston,  Mississippi,  and  Missouri,  in  doing  which,  as 
well  as  I  was  able,  I  traced  out  lines  and  boundaries." 

He  attended  the  Ohio  conference  held  in  September,  1815,  and  also 
the  conference  held  in  Tennessee  the  following  October,  Concerning 
the  business  of  this  last  conference  he  makes  this  note  :  "  My  eyes  fail, 
I  will  resign  the  stations  to  Bishop  MacKendree  —  I  will  take  away  my 
feet.  It  is  my  fifty-fifth  year  of  ministry,  and  forty-fifth  year  of  labor 
in  America.  My  mind  enjoys  great  peace  and  consolation.  My  health 
is  better,  which  may  in  part  be  because  of  my  being  less  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  business  of  the  conference."  Yet  weakened  as  he  was  by  dis- 
ease and  the  infirmities  of  age,  he  still  cherished  the  hope  of  being  per- 
mitted to  meet  once  more  with  his  brethren  in  the  general  conference 
which  was  to  assemble  in  May,  1816,  in  Baltimore,  the  city  where  a  little 
more  than  thirty  years  before  he  had  been  ordained  to  his  responsible  of- 
fice, the  duties  of  which  he  had  so  well  and  faithfully  performed.  It 
was  not  to  be.  What  little  strength  he  had  had  began  to  fail  him  rapidly 
now,  but  his  indomitable  will  still  kept  him  up.  Journeying  from  place 
to  place,  as  he  was  able,  he,  with  his  traveling  companion,  J.  W.  Bond, 
at  length  in  March,  1816,  came  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  where  on  the 
24tli  of  that  month  he  preached  his  last  sermon.  By  this  time  he  was 
so  weak  that  Mr.  Bond  and  other  friends  entreated  him  not  to  tax  his 
little  remaining  strength  by  attempting  to  preach,  but  to  no  purpose  ;  he 
said  he  must  deliver  his  message  to  the  people  of  that  church  once  more. 
So,  finding  further  entreaty  useless,  they  carried  him  from  the  carriage  — 
he  could  now  neither  walk  nor  stand  —  to  the  pulpit,  where,  seated  on  a 
table  previously  arranged  for  him,  he  addressed  his  deeply  moved  con- 
gregation. His  message  delivered,  he  was  carried  back  to  the  house  of 
his  friend,  where  he  rested  over  Monday.  Tuesday,  Thursday,  and  Fri- 
day he  continued  his  journey  until  he  reached  Spottsylvania,  where  in 
the  house  of  his  old  friend,  George  Arnold,  he  calmly  and  peacefully 
passed  away  on  Sabbath,  March  31,  1816.  How  truly  it  might  be  said 
of  him  that  he  ceased  at  once  to  work  and  live.  Some  little  idea  may 
be  gained  of  his  travels  and  labors  from  the  following  brief  summary 
contained  in  the  preface  of  the  "  Life  and  Career  of  Francis  Asbury," 
by  the  late  Bishop  Janes. 

"  In  his  annual  or  semi-annual  journeys  he  visited  Massachusetts  twenty- 
three  times  after  1791,  the  date  of  his  first  visit,  and  during  the  forty -five 
years  of  his  ministry  in  America  he  visited  the  State  of  New  York  fifty- 
six  times,  New  Jersey  sixty-two,  Pennsylvania  seventy-eight,  Delaware 
thirty-three,  Maryland  eighty,  North  Carolina  sixty-three,  South  Caro- 
lina forty-six,  Virginia  eighty-four,  Tennessee  and  Georgia  twenty  times 
each,   and  other  States  and  Territories   with  corresponding  frequency. 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]     WILLIAM  MA  CKENDREE.  623 

....  In  his  unparalleled  itinerant  career  he  preached  about  sixteen  thou- 
sand five  hundred  sermons,  or  at  least  one  a  day,'  and  traveled  about  two 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  miles,  or  six  thousand  a  year,  presiding 
in  no  less  than  two  hundred  and  twenty-four  annual  conferences,  and 
ordaining  more  than  four  thousand  preachers."  The  numbers  in  society 
at  his  death  were  two  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand  two  hundred  and 
thirty-five,  with  six  hundred  and  ninety-five  preachers,  which,  compared 
with  the  membership  when  Mr.  Asbury  came  to  America,  forty-five  years 
before,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Wesley,  namely,  six  hundred  members 
with  ten  preachers,  shows  accurately  what  God  had  wrought  through  the 
instrumentality  of  that  truly  apostolic  bishop. — T.  W. 


LIFE   XIII.     WILLIAM   MACKENDEEE. 

A.  D.  1757-A.    D.    183.5.      METHODIST    EPISCOPAL,  —  AMERICA. 

Few  events  in  the  history  of  the  church  in  modern  times  have  ex- 
cited more  interest  than  the  marvelous  growth  and  development  of  Meth- 
odism in  the  Southern  and  Western  States  of  the  American  Union. 
This  is  attributable,  under  God,  to  the  peculiar  adaptation  of  its  econ- 
omy to  the  character  of  the  country  and  its  population,  and  to  the  agents 
who  were  called  to  labor  in  this  vast  field  in  the  cause  of  Christianity. 
The  church  could  not  have  been  organized  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  this  immense  territory,  sparsely  populated  as  it  has  been  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  its  history,  by  the  ordinary  appliances  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical bodies  which  were  in  existence  at  the  time  of  the  American 
Revolution,  The  population  was  too  widely  scattered  and  the  people 
were  too  much  divided  in  their  religious  opinions  and  proclivities  —  to 
say  nothing  of  the  general  unconcern  about  religion  —  to  call  ministers, 
if  they  could  have  been  procured,  and  to  place  them  in  settled  pastorates, 
if  .they  could  have  been  supported.  In  a  few  of  the  cities  and  other 
centres  the  old  regime  obtained ;  but  this  was  mostly  confined  to  offshoots 
of  the  churches  of  England  and  Scotland,  which  could  do  but  little  in 
the  work  of  evangelizing  the  rural  populations. 

But  Methodism  had  both  the  economy  and  the  men  for  the  work.  It 
did  not  wait  for  its  ministers  to  be  called  by  the  people,  and  to  be  guar- 
anteed a  support ;  it  sent  them  forth  among  the  people,  whether  they 
wanted  them  or  not ;  whether  or  not  they  would  receive  the  evangelists 
thus  sent,  and  minister  to  their  wants.  It  did  not  wait  till  ministers 
could  be  educated  in  science,  literature,  and  theology,  as  taught  in  the 
schools.  Methodism  never  undervalued  these  attainments,  but  it  never 
considered  them  a  sine  qua  non  for  the  ministry.  It  demanded  certain 
qualifications  which  were  considered  indispensable.  Concerning  all  can- 
didates for  the  ministry  these  questions  were  asked  :  — 


624  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

"  1.  Do  they  know  God  as  a  pardoning  God  ?  Have  they  the  love  of 
God  abiding  in  them  ?  Do  they  desire  nothing  but  God  ?  And  are 
they  holy  in  all  manner  of  conversation  ? 

"  2.  Have  they  gifts  (as  well  as  grace)  for  the  work  ?  Have  they  (in 
some  tolerable  degree)  a  clear,  sound  understanding,  a  right  judgment  in 
the  things  of  God,  a  just  conception  of  salvation  by  faith  ?  Do  they 
speak  justly,  readily,  clearly  ? 

"  3.  Have  they  fruit  ?  Are  any  truly  convinced  of  sin  and  converted 
to  God  by  their  preaching  ?  " 

If  these  questions  were  answered  in  the  affirmative,  the  candidates 
were  admitted  to  the  ministry,  and  employed  in  work  to  which  they  were 
adapted,  in  the  judgment  of  those  who  were  placed  over  them  in  the 
Lord.  They  were  of  the  j)eople  —  a  plebeian  ministry  —  and  they 
found  no  difficulty  in  adapting  their  style  of  address,  their  social  in- 
tercourse, modes  of  life,  etc.,  to  the  people  whom  they  served. 

They  went  forth  like  the  primitive  evangelists,  —  "  taking  nothing  of 
the  Gentiles."  They  were,  indeed,  allowed  to  receive  entertainment 
from  the  people,  "  eating  and  drinking  such  things  as  they  gave,"  and 
thirty-two  pounds  Virginia  currency,  or  twenty-four  pounds  Pennsylvania 
currency,  if  they  could  get  it,  and  the  same  for  their  wives,  with  eight 
pounds  for  each  child  under  eleven,  and  six  pounds  for  each  child  under 
six  years  of  age  ;  subsequently  it  was  raised  to  sixty-four  pounds,  and 
then  to  one  hundred  pounds  and  their  traveling  expenses.  But  this 
"  allowance  "  they  seldom  realized. 

Methodism  was  a  flexible  system ;  hence  it  underwent  all  necessary 
changes  to  adapt  it  to  the  altered  conditions  of  society.  It  was  fortu- 
nate in  having  at  its  head,  for  over  thirty  years  of  its  early  history,  a 
man  of  strong  common  sense,  varied  attainments,  good  executive  ability, 
and  apostolic  zeal,  —  the  venerable  Bishop  Asbury.  This  remarkable 
man  was  a  keen  judge  of  character ;  he  read  men  as  we  read  books  ; 
and  he  gathered  around  him  those  who  were  like-minded  with  himself ; 
and  of  these  he  put  in  prominent  positions  those  whom  he  could  trust  to 
execute  all  his  well-laid  plans.  Among  these,  and  the  standard-bearer 
among  them,  was  William  MacKendree,  eminently  a  man  after  his  own 
heart. 

William  MacKendree  was  born  in  King  William  County,  Virginia, 
July  5,  1757.  He  came  of  worthy  and  pious  parentage,  but  received 
A  soldier  in  the  '^'^^Y  ^"^^  ^  limited  education  as  was  common  in  those  days 
Revolution.  j^  ^jjg  Qj^j  Dominion.  He  entered  the  army,  as  a  soldier,  of 
the  Revolution,  and  served  the  last  two  years  of  the  war  under  General 
Washington.  Shortly  after  he  entered  the  service  he  was  made  an  ad- 
jutant, and  because  of  his  great  business  qualifications  and  remarkable 
energy  he  was  placed  in  the  commissary  department,  where  he  did  much 
to  support  the  allied  forces  of  Washington  and  Eochambeau  at  the  siege 


Cent.  XVn.-XIX.J     WILLIAM  MACKENDREE.  625 

of  Yorktown,  where  Coruwallis  surrendered  his  sword.  But  he  seldom 
alluded  to  this  military  episode  in  his  life,  and  could  not  be  induced  to 
apply  for  a  pension  for  his  services.  He  said  he  contended  for  liberty ; 
that  gained,  he  asked  no  more. 

From  a  youth  be  was  under  serious  impressions  in  regard  to  religion, 
and  in  1787  he  joined  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  At  a  conference 
held  in  Amelia  County,  Virginia,  June  17, 1788,  he  was  admitted  on  trial 
into  the  Virginia  Conference,  and  stationed  at  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth. 
The  next  year  he  was  sent  to  Petersburg,  but  at  the  end  of  the  first 
quarter  he  was  transferred  to  Union  Circuit,  South  Carolina.  He  was 
sent  the  next  year  to  Bedford  Circuit,  Virginia,  but  the  third  quarter  he 
was  sent  to  Greenbrier  Circuit,  the  fourth  quarter  to  Little  Levels,  on 
the  western  waters.  The  next  year  he  was  sent  to  four  circuits,  to  serve 
each  one  quarter !  He  was  the  next  year  presiding  elder  of  the  Rich- 
mond District,  and  the  year  after  he  was  placed  on  a  mountain  district 
of  the  Baltimore  Conference.  The  next  year  he  was  returned  to  the 
Richmond  District,  but  after  one  quarter  he  was  sent  by  the  bishops  to 
take  charge  of  what  was  called  the  Western  Conference,  embracing  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  all  Virginia  west  of  New  River,  and  one  circuit 
in  Illinois. 

These  i-ajiid  and  sudden  changes  furnish  a  pregnant  illustration  of  the 
ease  with  which  the  great  Methodist  army  was  mobilized  in  those  early 
days.  Paul's  Epistles  abound  in  military  metaphors,  and  the  fathers  of 
American  Methodism  seem  to  have  studied  them  to  great  effect.  Every 
itinerant  preacher  was  trained  to  "  endure  hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ."  Those  who  joined  the  sacramental  host  were  pledged  tO' 
obey  orders,  to  submit  to  the  military  discipline  without  which  such  a 
ministry  could  not  be  made  available.  "When  they  were  admitted  into  full 
connection  in  the  conference,  among  other  charges  this  was  given  them  :  — 

"  Act  in  all  things  not  according  to  your  own  will,  but  as  a  son  in  the 
gospel.  It  is  therefore  your  duty  to  employ  your  time  in  the  manner 
which  we  direct :  in  preaching,  meeting  the  classes,  visiting  from  house 
to  house,  and  especially  visiting  the  sick  ;  in  reading,  meditation,  and 
prayer.  Above  all,  if  you  labor  with  us  in  the  Lord's  vineyard,  it  is  need- 
ful you  should  do  that  part  of  the  work  which  we  advise,  at  those  times 
and  places  which  we  judge  most  for  his  glory." 

If  any  one  found  it  a  test  too  severe,  he  was  allowed  without  blame 
to  retire  into  the  ranks  of  the  local  ministry  (as  many  did),  and  preach 
when  and  where  he  listed.  The  local  preachers,  in  time,  outnumbered 
the  itinerants,  as  they  do  now ;  and  immense  service  they  have  done  to 
the  cause. 

For  twenty  years  MacKendree  labored  assiduously,  and  with  great  suc- 
cess, in  these  important  fields,  especially  while  he  was  in  charge  of  the 
Western  Conference.  He  was  the  very  man  for  this  work.  Like  Na- 
40 


626  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

poleon  he  lived  in  the  saddle.  On  his  trusty  steed  he  scaled  high  mount- 
He  lives  in  the  ^^^^,  forded  deep  streams,  waded  tlirough  mud  and  mire,  and 
saddle.  penetrated  pathless  forests  and  jungles.    He  headed  his  noble 

band  of  co-laborers,  and  was  "  in  labors  more  abundant,"  —  "  in  journey- 
ings  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  by  his  own 
countrymen,  in  perils  by  the  heathen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in 
the  wilderness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false  brethren ;  in 
weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in 
fastings  often,  in  cold  and  heat,  if  not  in  nakedness,  —  besides  those 
things  that  were  without,  that  which  came  upon  him  daily,  the  care  of 
all  the  churches." 

That  which  gave  him  so  much  power  and  efficiency  was  the  singular 
capacity  and  tact  which  he  had  observed  in  his  great  model,  Asbury,  of 
gathering  around  him  noble,  heroic  men,  like  himself,  who  heartily  en- 
tered into  all  his  evangelistic  plans,  arid  executed  them  like  loyal  and 
valiant  soldiers  of  the  cross,  with  a  spirit 

"  Such  as  in  the  martyrs  glowed, 
Dying  champions  for  their  God." 

One  of  them,  Jesse  Walker,  was  usually  sent  forward  as  engineer  to 
reconnoitre,  select  suitable  positions,  and  then  report  to  the  general  in 
command.  MacKendree  would  then  bring  his  heavy  ordnance  and  his 
light  arms  into  the  field  ;  the  former  wielded  by  such  heroes  as  John 
McGee,  William  Burke,  John  Page,  Lewis  Garrett,  and  others  ;  and  the 
latter  by  Thomas  Wilkerson,  Larner  Blackman,  James  Gwin  (who  was 
at  one  time  General  Jackson's  army  chaplain),  Samuel  Dowthett,  and 
others ;  who  upon  occasion  could  wield  the  heavy  ordnance  too. 

All  these  noble  pioneers  have  gone  to  their  reward.  I  did  not  enjoy 
the  personal  acquaintance  of  many  of  them ;  but  my  late  glorified  friend, 
the  Rev.  A.  L.  P.  Green,  D.  D.,  often  described  them  to  me,  so  that  I 
seem  to  know  them  all,  and  their  great  leader  as  well.  Dr.  Green  was 
familiar  with  them,  and  with  MacKendree,  whose  "  minister  "  he  was  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  patriarch's  life.  He  served  him  "  as  a  son  in  the 
^gospel,"  and  he  never  grew  weary  in  conversing  about  him  and  his  asso- 
ciates. Dr.  Green  at  one  time  lived  with  James  Gwin,  and  he  was  the 
traveling  companion  and  intimate  friend  of  MacKendree.  He  had  a 
singular  faculty  —  transcending  that  ascribed  to  Papias,  but  he  was  more 
trustworthy  than  that  father — of  treasuring  up  the  incidents  in  the  lives 
of  these  venerable  men.  He  gives  an  account  of  the  pioneer  work  of 
MacKendree  and  his  associates,  extending  through  a  few  weeks  in  the 
year  1807,  as  a  sample  :  — 

"  Jesse  Walker  was  sent  to  Illinois,  there  being  at  that  time  but  one 
circuit  in  that  State,  and  a  young  man  by  the  name  of  Travis  was  sent  to 
Missouri.  In  the  summer  of  this  year,  William  MacKendree,  who  was 
Ihen  in  charge  of  what  was  called  the  Cumberland  District,  which  ex- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     WILLIAM  MACKENDREE.  627 

tended  to  Illinois  and  Missouri,  took  with  him  James  Gwin  and  A.  God- 
dard  (Gwin  was  then  a  local  preacher,  and  Goddard  was  traveling  what 
was  then  called  Barren  Circuit),  and  set  out  to  visit  Walker  and  Travis. 
They  crossed  over  the  Ohio,  and  entered  into  the  State  of  Illinois,  trav- 
eled all  day,  and,  finding  no  house  to  stop  at,  passed  the  night  in  the  wil- 
derness. Next  day  they  shared  a  like  fortune,  camping  out  at  night 
again.  During  this  night  their  horses  got  away,  and  they  did  not  find 
them  till  about  noon  the  next  day  ;  but  that  night  they  found  a  lone 
settlement,  and  tarried  with  a  poor  family  who  were  living  in  a  tem- 
porary hut  or  camp.  Next  night  they  reached  the  house  of  a  Mr.  B., 
who  received  them  kindly.  The  Mississippi  was  not  far  off,  and  there 
being  no  way  to  get  their  horses  across  it  at  that  point,  they  left  them 
with  Mr.  B.,  took  their  baggage  on  their  shoulders,  and  went  on  foot  to 
the  river,  which  they  crossed  in  a  canoe,  and  after  walking  twelve  miles 
they  came  to  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Johnson.  Here  they  met  young  Travis, 
who  had  gotten  up  a  little  camp-meeting  in  the  wilderness.  At  this 
meeting  their  labors  were  greatly  blessed.  When  it  closed  they  returned 
again  to  Mr.  B.,  and  went  to  a  camp-meeting  in  the  bounds  of  brother 
Walker's  work  called  the  Three  Springs. 

"  Here  they  found  a  few  faithful  members  of  the  church,  but  hosts  of 
enemies.  One  individual,  in  particular,  who  was  a  leader  of  a  band  of 
persecutors,  had  called  a  council  among  them  to  form  a  plan  to  drive  the 
preachers  off.  He  stated  to  his  clan  that  if  the  preachers  were  permitted 
to  remain,  and  could  have  their  way,  they  would  break  up  all  the  gam- 
bling and  racing  in  the  country,  and  that  they  could  have  no  more  pleas- 
ure, or  fun,  as  he  called  it.  So  the  determination  among  them  was  to 
arm  themselves,  go  to  the  camp-meeting  en  masse,  take  the  preachers 
and  conduct  them  to  the  Ohio  River,  carry  them  over,  and  let  them  know 
that  they  were  to  keep  on  their  own  side,  and  never  trouble  them  again. 
This  purpose  was  made  known  to  the  preachers  in  advance  of  their  ap- 
pearance on  the  encampment.  On  Sunday,  while  Mr.  MacKendree  was 
in  the  midst  of  his  discourse,  preaching  to  a  large  and  interested  con- 
gregation, on  the  text,  '  Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  together,'  etc.,  the 
major,  as  he  was  called,  and  his  company,  rode  up  and  halted  near  the 
congregation.  The  major  told  his  men  that  he  would  not  do  anything 
until  the  man  had  done  preaching.  Mr.  MacKendree  was  then  in  the 
prime  of  life,  his  voice  loud  and  commanding,  his  bearing  that  of  un- 
daunted courage,  while  a  supernatural  defiance  seemed  to  shoot  forth 
from  his  speaking  eyes.  He  was  sustained  by  the  presence  of  Gwin, 
Goddard,  Walker,  and  Travis,  who  sat  near  him.  The  prayers  of  the 
faithful  were  being  sent  up  to  heaven  in  his  behalf,  and,  above  all,  the 
divine  presence  was  with  him.  Such  was  the  power  of  his  reasoning, 
that  he  held  the  major  and  his  party  spell-bound  for  an  hour.  During 
his  remarks,  he  took  occasion  to  say  that  himself  and  the  ministers  that 


628  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Peiuod  V. 

accompanied  him  were  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  freemen, 
and  had  fought  for  the  liberty  which  they  enjoyed,  but  that  their  visit  to 
that  place  was  one  of  mercy,  their  object  being  to  do  good  to  the  souls 
of  men  in  the  name  of  Christ.  As  he  drew  his  remarks  to  a  close,  aw- 
ful shocks  of  divine  power  were  felt  by  the  congregation.  At  length 
mourners  were  called  for,  and  scores  crowded  to  the  altar.  At  this  mo- 
ment, the  major  undertook  to  draw  off  his  men  and  retreat  in  good  order, 
but  some  were  already  gone,  others  had  alighted,  turned  their  horses 
loose,  and  were  at  the  altar  for  prayer.  He  led  off  a  few  of  them  to 
the  spring,  and  after  a  short  consultation,  none  of  them  seemed  inclined 
to  prosecute  their  purpose  any  further,  and  at  once  disbanded.  Several 
of  the  number  were  converted  before  the  meeting  closed,  and  became 
members  of  the  church.  ' 

"  On  the  same  evening,  about  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  a  man  came 
up  to  Mr.  Gwin,  and  said  to  him,  '  Are  you  the  man  that  carries  the 
roll?'  'What  roll?'  said  Mr.  Gwin.  'The  roll,'  said  he,  'that  peo- 
ple put  their  names  to  that  want  to  go  to  heaven.'  Brother  Gwin,  sup- 
posing that  he  had  reference  to  the  class-book,  referred  him  to  brother 
Walker,  who  took  his  name.  The  wild  look  and  novel  manner  of  the 
man  indicated  derangement.  He  left  the  camp-ground,  and  fled  to  the 
woods,  with  almost  the  speed  of  a  wild  beast.  Nothing  more  was  seen 
of  him  until  the  next  morning,  at  which  time  he  returned  to  the  encamp- 
ment, wet  with  the  dew  of  the  night,  in  a  state  of  mind  which  was  dis- 
tressing beyond  description ;  but  during  the  day  he  was  happily  and 
powerfully  converted  to  God,  and  was  found  sitting,  as  it  were,  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus,  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind.  He  afterward  gave  the 
following  account  of  himself.  He  lived  in  what  was  called  the  Amer- 
ican Bottom,  was  very  wicked,  and  professed  to  be  a  deist.  A  short  time 
before,  he  dreamed  that  the  day  of  judgment  was  coming,  and  that  three 
men  had  been  sent  on  from  the  East  to  warn  him  of  his  danger,  which 
had  distressed  him  greatly  ;  and  when  he  saw  the  three  preachers,  Mac- 
Kendree,  Gwin,  and  Goddard,  pass  his  house,  he  recognized  them  as  the 
same  persons  whom  he  had  seen  in  his  dream,  and  he  had  followed 
them  to  the  camp-meeting,  and  they  had  warned  him  of  his  danger,  sure 
enough.  It  was  said  of  this  man  that  he  possessed  a  large  estate,  was 
very  influential  in  his  neighborhood,  and  was  ultimately  instrumental  in 
doing  much  good. 

"  At  the  close  of  this  meeting,  one  hundred  persons  connected  them- 
selves with  the  church." 

It  is  no  marvel  that  when  another  bishop  was  needed  to  supervise  the 
MacKcndrce  Connection,  William  MacKendree  was  selected  for  the  office, 
made  bishop  jj^  was  placed  in  this  responsible  position  by  the  general 
conference  of  1808,  and  remained  in  it  for  nearly  twenty-seven  years. 
The  work  which  he  performed  in  that  long  period  is  almost  incredible. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     WIILIAM  3IACKENDREE.  629 

Like  Asbury,  he  never  married,  so  that  he  was  at  home  everywhere.  It 
took  very  little  to  support  him,  so  that  he  was  never  embarrassed  with 
temporal  matters,  —  never  "entangled  with  the  affairs  of  this  life." 

As  an  executive  officer  he  was  rarely  excelled.  He  presided  in  con- 
ference with  great  dignity  and  impartiality.  His  keen  insight  into  the 
characters  of  men,  and  his  perfect  familiarity  with  all  parts  of  the  con- 
nection, eminently  fitted  him  for  the  delicate  and  difficult  task  of  "  sta- 
tioning the  preachers." 

He  was  a  strict  constructionist  in  regard  to  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  church,  and  would  lay  down  his  office,  or,  for  that  matter,  his  life, 
before  he  would  sanction  any  serious  infringement  of  them.  There  were 
occasions  when  he  showed  his  unwavering  and  invincible  regard  to  the 
old  landmarks,  as  may  be  seen  in  that  excellent  work,  "  The  Life  and 
Times  of  Bishop  MacKendree,"  by  one  of  his  great  admirers,  —  one  of 
his  sons  in  the  gospel,  on  whom  his  mantle  has  fallen,  — •  the  Rev.  Bishop 
Paine.  But  I  have  no  occasion  to  enlarge  on  this  point  in  the  present 
sketch. 

I  would  not  have  the  impression  made  that  Bishop  MacKendree  did 
not  labor  in  the  North  and  East,  as  well  as  in  the  South  and  West,  or 
that  he  was  not  held  in  as  high  esteem  there  as  here.  He  traveled,  and 
preached,  and  presided,  as  a  bishop,  all  over  the  Union,  and  he  was 
everywhere  regarded  as  "  a  chosen  vessel,"  exceeded  by  none  as  an  able 
minister  of  the  New  Testament,  and  a  faithful  ruler  in  the  Church  of 
God. 

By  so  much  exposure  and  toil  Bishop  MacKendree,  in  his  old  age,  be- 
came the  victim  of  asthma  and  neuralgia,  from  which  he  suffered  much ; 
yet  he  continued  to  preach  till  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death.  His 
last  sermon  was  preached  in  the  church  which  bore  his  name  in  Nash- 
ville, and  which,  before  this  story  shall  be  published,  will  give  place  to 
another  on  the  same  sacred  spot,  bearing  the  same  time-honored  name. 
The  writer  preached  a  watch-night  sermon,  the  last  in  the  sacred  fane, 
December  31,  1876,  when  the  bishop's  last  attendance  at  a  watch-night 
service,  in  the  same  place,  forty-two  years  before,  was  spoken  of  by  one 
who  was  present  on  the  occasion.  His  last  sermon  was  preached  there 
in  1834.  Dr.  Green  heard  it,  and  in  speaking  of  it  says,  "  I  can  in  my 
imagination  see  him  this  moment,  as  he  last  stood  on  the  walls  of  Zion 
with  his  sickle  in  his  hand ;  the  gray  hairs  thinly  covering  his  forehead, 
his  pale  and  withered  face,  his  benignant  countenance,  his  speaking  eye ; 
while  a  deep  undercurrent  of  thought,  scarcely  veiled  by  the  external 
lineaments,  took  form  in  words,  and  fell  from  his  trembling  lips,  as,  by 
the  eye  of  faith,  he  transcended  the  boundaries  of  time  and  entered 
upon  the  eternal  world.  But  he  is  drawing  to  the  close  of  his  sermon. 
Now,  for  the  last  time,  he  bends  himself,  and  reaches  his  sickle  forth  to 
reap  the  fields  ripe  for  the  harvest.     How  balmy  the  name  of  Christ  as 


630  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

be  breathes  it  fortb,  standing  as  it  were  midway  between  heaven  and 
earth,  and  pointing  to  the  home  of  the  faithf nl  in  the  sky  !  I  look  again : 
the  sickle  sways  in  his  hand,  his  strength  is  measured  out,  and  he  closes 
up  his  ministerial  labors  on  earth  with  the  words,  '  I  add  no  more,'  while 
imagination  hears  the  response  from  the  invisible  glory,  '  It  is  enough  ! ' " 

Shortly  after  this,  the  bishop  rej^aired  to  the  house  of  his  brother,  Dr. 
James  MacKendree,  in  Sumner  County,  Tennessee. 

He  suffered  much  from  an  inflammation  of  his  index  finger,  and  this 
was  the  apparent,  proximate  cause  of  his  death,  illustrating  the  senti- 
ment, — 

"An  earthquake  may  be  bid  to  spare 
The  man  that's  strangled  by  a  hair." 

But  it  matters  not  when  or  how  we  die,  if  we  die  in  the  Lord. 

"A  thousand  ways  hath  Providence 
To  bring  believers  home." 

He  was  very  patient  and   cheerful  during  his  illness,  and  grateful  for 
the  unceasing   attentions  of  his   friends.      Once  when   he 

His  closing  days.  ^  n  t  l  •  i  ^    •         r  •  •  KT 

awoke  from  sleep,  he  said  to  his  favorite  sister,  JNaucy, 
and  his  nieces,  who  were  watching  by  his  bedside,  "  You  are  like  lamps 
burning  while  I  sleep,  to  cheer  me  when  I  wake !  " 

Dr.  Green  spent  a  night  with  him  just  before  his  death.  At  one  time 
the  doctor  said  to  him,  "  Bishop,  I  may  live  when  you  have  passed  away, 
and  wherever  I  go  your  friends  will  want  to  hear  from  you  ;  what  shall 
I  say  to  them  ?  "  He  replied,  "  Tell  them  for  me,  that  whether  for  time 
or  for  efeernity.  All's  well!"  This,  his  favorite  saying,  was  the  last  con- 
nected utterance  that  fell  from  his  lips.  These  dying  words  became  the 
burden  of  a  song,  which  has  gained  great  popularity,  and  has  cheered 
the  heart  of  many  a  dying  saint.  It  was  composed  by  R.  Jukes,  and  is 
Hymn  495  in  the  writer's  "  Songs  of  Ziou  : "  "  What 's  this  that  steals, 
that  steals  upon  my  frame?  "     Bishop  MacKendree  died  March  5,  1835. 

I  may  add  a  word  or  two  respecting  his  personal  appearance.  Dr. 
Green  describes  him  as  about  five  feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and  weighing 
on  an  average  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds.  He  had  fair  skin,  dark 
hair,  and  blue  eyes.  Some  say  his  eyes  were  of  another  color,  but  a 
venerable  matriarch  of  Columbia,  Mrs.  Porter,  a  step-daughter  of  one 
of  the  bishop's  sisters,  told  me  the  other  day  they  were  light  blue.  He 
had  a  faultless  form,  regular  features,  great  strength.  His  countenance 
evinced  deep  thought,  but  upon  occasion  it  would  kindle  into  a  very 
lively  expression.  He  was  exquisitely  neat  in  his  person.  He  was  gen- 
erally clean-shaved  and  well-dressed,  his  favorite  costume  being  a  long- 
waisted,  single-breasted  black  coat,  black  vest,  breeches,  and  long  stock- 
iugs,  polished  shoes  with  silver  buckles,  a  white  stock,  and  broad-brimmed 
hat.  He  was  a  most  venerable  and  dignified  personage.  He  was  very 
methodical  and  punctual  and  exact  in  all  things.     He  usually  retired  at 


Cent.  XVn.-XIX.]     WILLIAM  MACKENDREE.  631 

niue  o'clock,  and  rose  at  five.  He  was  remarkable  for  the  ease  and  affa- 
bility with  which  he  accommodated  himself  to  all  classes  of  society,  high 
and  low,  rich  and  jDOor,  learned  and  rude,  bond  and  free,  and  this  was 
one  secret  of  his  great  success.  He  was  calm  and  collected  in  the  pulpit, 
though  he  sometimes  rose  with  his  subject  to  a  high  pitch  of  oratory. 
His  sermons  were  usually  short,  especially  in  his  later  years,  thereby 
differing  from  those  of  many  old  preachers.  His  public  devotions  were 
also  concise,  and  withal  simple,  comprehensive,  humble,  and  greatly  edi- 
fying. 

On  Tuesday,  October  3,  1876,  I  took  part  in  a  very  solemn  service, 
at  the  translation  of  the  remains  of  Bishops  MacKeudree  and  Soule. 
Bishop  MacKeudree  had  been  interred  in  the  family  burying-ground. 
Fountain  Head,  Sumner  County,  Tennessee.  During  the  late  war  his 
tomb  had  been  desecrated  by  soldiers,  and  was  desolate  and  exposed. 
Bishop  Soule,  who  was  in  some  respects  the  successor  of  Bishop  Mac- 
Keudree, —  a  man  of  similar  heroic  cast  and  apostolic  zeal,  —  died  in 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  March  6,  1867,  and  was  buried  in  the  old  Nash- 
ville cemetery ;  I  officiated,  with  others,  at  his  funeral.  It  was  thought 
advisable  to  translate  the  remains  of  both  bishops  (the  consent  of  rela- 
tives being  granted)  to  a  suitable  sjiot  in  the  grounds  of  the  Vanderbilt 
University,  near  Wesley  Hall,  and  to  place  a  monument  over  them. 

On  opening  the  coffins  Bishop  Soule  was  not  distinguishable,  except  by 
the  frontal  arch,  which  marked  him  in  life  as  a  man  of  towering  intellect ; 
and  of  Bishop  MacKeudree  nothing  remained  but  a  few  bones  and 
"dust,"  scarcely  to  be  separated  from  the  mother-earth  in  which  he  had 
lain  !     But  these  remains  ai'e  sacred  and  precious ! 

With  due  solemnity,  devout  men,  ministers  of  Christ,  bore  them  to 
their  last  resting-place,  followed  by  the  officers  and  students  of  Vander- 
bilt University,  and  a  large  company  of  interested  friends.  Suitable  de- 
votional exercises  were  conducted  by  the  writer,  the  Rev.  F.  A.  Owen 
leading  in  prayer,  hymns  were  sung,  and  an  impressive  discourse  was 
delivered  by  Bishop  Mactyeire,  who  drew  the  characters  of  the  two 
bishops,  —  one,  of  the  chivalrous  South  (Virginia),  the  other,  of  the  Pu- 
ritan North  (Maine),  a  descendant  of  the  Soule  who  came  over  in  the 
Mayflower ;  yet  both  of  one  heart  and  of  one  mind,  true  yoke-fellows  in 
cultivating  the  gospel  field  and  spreading  Scripture  holiness  over  these 
lands.  The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  B.  McFerrin  followed  with  a  brief  address. 
The  double  grave  was  then  covered  in  by  the  students  of  Vanderbilt 
University. 

What  America,  and  especially  the  Southern  and  Western  States  of 
the  American  Union,  owe  to  these  heroic,  self-sacrificing,  and  laborious 
apostles  of  the  church,  no  pen  can  describe ;  "  the  day  shall  declare  it." 
—  T.  S. 


632  THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

LIFE  XIII.     WILBUR  FISK. 

A.  D.  1792-A.  D.   1839.       METHODIST  EPISCOPAL,  AMERICA. 

Great  moral  revolutions  have  ever  been  accompanied  by  powerful  in- 
tellectual quickening.  Religious  energies  will  soon  be  expended  in  aim- 
less struggle  unless  they  are  directed  and  controlled  by  a  cool  judgment 
and  a  cultured  reason.  Religious  zeal  may  arouse  the  multitude  from 
sloth  and  indifference,  and  even  push  the  people  to  a  height  of  endeavor 
truly  sublime,  but  abiding  good  can  be  secured  only  by  careful  cultivation 
of  the  regulative  faculties  of  the  whole  man. 

Hence  true  reformers  have  ever  been  foremost  in  their  careful  interest 
for  the  education  of  the  young.     No  men  of  the  sixteenth 

The  great  re-  .  . 

formers  were       ccntury  wcre  more  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  reform 

true  educators.      ,  '^      .  i-ari  i  ttt- 

in  education  than  were  Luther  and  Melancthon.  Indeed,  it 
may  be  truly  said  that  Protestantism  gave  to  the  people  the  common 
schools,  and  furnished  to  the  masses  an  education  for  its  own  sake.  John 
Wesley,  also,  placed  in  the  front  rank  of  importance  the  question  of  the 
education  of  the  people  who  had  been  converted  through  his  own  instru- 
mentality and  that  of  his  preachers,  so  that  the  earnest  question  pro- 
posed at  the  very  first  conference  of  his  preachers  was,  "  Can  we  have 
a  seminary  for  laborers  ?  "  Therefore  it  was  but  in  accord  with  a  spirit- 
ual law  that  when  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  organized  on 
these  western  shores  the  chiefest  concern  of  its  first  bishop,  Asbury, 
should  be  in  the  education  of  the  people.  He  distinctly  declares  in  his 
"  journals "  that  the  question  of  education  caused  him  more  serious 
thought  than  any  other  single  interest.  This  concern  is  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  as  in  England,  so  in  America,  in  the  very  year  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  church.  Coke  and  Asbury  projected  a  college  whose  founda- 
tions were  laid  within  a  year.  Various  efforts  were  made  to  establish 
academies  and  seminaries  in  different  portions  of  the  country.  While 
these  attempts  were  only  partially  successful,  they  nevertheless  afford  an 
index  of  the  desire  of  the  leading  thinkers  of  the  church  to  steady  the 
great  revival  movement  by  appropriate  literary  and  scholastic  training. 

Methodism  must  be  counted  especially  fortunate  in  the  choice  of  her 
first  representative  educator  in  the  North,  and  must  attribute  much  of  her 
subsequent  success  in  academic  and  collegiate  education  to  the  spirit  and 
eminent  ability  of  Wilbur  Fisk,  the  first  president  of  Wesleyau  Univer- 
sity, Middletown,  Connecticut. 

He  was  born  in  Brattleboro,  Vermont,  August  31,  1792,  of  respect- 
Parentage  and  ^^^®  ^"^  pious  parents,  who  were  of  genuine  Puritan  stock, 
early  training,  xhe  son  early  received  careful  religious  instruction  by  read- 
ing the  Scriptures,  by  the  study  of  the  catechism,  and  most  of  all,  per- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  WILBUR  FISK.  633 

haps,  by  the  mild  and  cheerful  spirit  which  the  virtuous  parents  ever 
manifested  in  their  home.  Upon  the  boy's  character  and  life  were 
early  seen  the  blessed  eifects  of  this  parental  solicitude.  Naturally  of 
an  ardent  temperament,  and  sometimes  yielding  to  the  influence  of 
self-will,  young  Fisk  was,  nevertheless,  conscientious,  and  early  acquired 
great  aptitude  in  the  narration  of  his  religious  experience  in  the  neigh- 
borhood meetings.  Even  in  academic  life  his  marvelous  ability  to  in- 
fluence and  control  mind  was  manifest.  With  a  calm  self-possession 
and  an  easy  poise  which  he  had  acquired,  he  was  seldom  overwhelmed 
with  surprise  or  found  off  his  guard  in  the  presence  of  an  opponent. 
His  collegiate  life  at  Burlington,  Vermont,  and  at  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  was  brilliant  in  the  line  of  scholarly  attainment,  but  the  brightness 
of  his  iDiety  had' grown  dim,  and,  like  too  many  others  who  coiicgiateand 
have  become  careless  of  early  instruction,  young  Fisk,  on  ^^sai  traamng. 
graduation,  cherished  the  ambition  of  occupying  a  chief  seat  in  the  councils 
of  the  nation,  and  had  thus  somewhat  stifled  the  voice  of  duty  which  had 
earlier  so  clearly  pointed  out  the  way  in  which  he  should  walk.  As  the 
surest  stepping-stone  to  future  political  preferment  he  began  the  study  of 
the  law  with  great  vigor  and  success. 

But  God  had  other  and,  as  we  must  believe,  holier  work  for  him  in 
store.  The  ministry  of  reconciliation  was  to  be  preached  by  this  man  of 
power  and  grace.  The  struggles  which  he  underwent  in  relinquishing 
his  legal  studies  and  in  entering  the  itinerant  ministry  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  (then  a  most  despised  body  of  religionists),  in  the  face 
of  strong  opposition  from  his  early  and  most  cherished  college  friends, 
and  from  the  woman  to  whom  he  had  become  betrothed,  were  such  as 
well-nigh  to  rend  asunder  his  troubled  soul.  But  when  the  decision 
was  once  reached,  such  was  his  spiritual  organization  that  no  reservation, 
mental  or  moral,  was  possible.  With  a  zeal  and  energy  truly  wonderful 
he  gave  himself  to  the  work  of  saving  souls. 

The  hardships  and  exposure  of  this  itinerant  life  were  very  trying, 
and  it  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  how  any  dishonest  itinerant  life 
man  of  cultiare  could  be  induced  to  give  himself  to  such  and  experiences. 
a  work.  Yet  Fisk  did  not  escape  these  imputations  of  an  unsanc- 
tified  ambition,  even  from  the  side  of  his  professed  friends.  But  his  de- 
votion and  success  in  saving  the  souls  of  the  people  soon  silenced  all  op- 
ponents. His  study  of  the  law  had  given  him  added  cogency  of  argument 
with  the  people,  and  his  style  of  preaching  at  this  time  resembled  the 
earnest  plea  of  an  advocate  who  was  laboring  to  convince  a  jury  who 
had  in  their  hands  an  issue  of  infinite  moment.  This  portion  of  his 
public  career  made  him  entirely  familiar  with  the  polity  and  life  of  the 
church  of  which  he  was  a  minister,  and  thus  eminently  fitted  him  to  un- 
derstand the  peculiar  training  needful  for  the  young  men  who  were  after- 
wards to  enjoy  his  instructions  in  collegiate  life.     The  mission  of  the 


634  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  the  settlements  which  were  so  rapidly 
made  by  the  hardy  pioneers  demanded  an  exceptional  education  on  the 
part  of  her  preachers.  These  settlers  were  as  a  class  possessed  of  a  ro- 
bust good  sense  and  a  strength  of  will  which  must  be  directed  by  equal 
good  sense  on  the  part  of  those  who  would  lead  them  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ,  and  by  men  who  could  easily  adapt  them- 
selves to  the  rude  conditions  and  homely  fare  of  frontier  life.  The  itin- 
erant who  was  compelled  to  travel  hundreds  of  miles  to  compass  his  wide 
circuit,  and  to  preach  from  six  to  twelve  times  each  week,  must  neces- 
sarily carry  his  library  in  his  portmanteau,  and  prepare  his  sermons  in  the 
saddle.  With  this  border  work  the  cultured,  polished  Fisk  became  en- 
tirely familiar.  Hence  he  was  prepared  later  to  say  to  the  most  gifted 
young  man  who  might  come  under  his  instruction,  "  God's  vineyard  is 
broad,  and  abundant  harvests  will  be  garnered  by  your  faithful  service. 
Small  earthly  rewards  you  may  expect ;  even  sacrifices  and  hardships  await 
you,  but  you  have  better  companionship  than  that  of  kings,  — '  Lo  !  I  am 
with  you.' "  While  he  thus  knew  the  trials  of  border  life,  he  knew  also  the 
delights  and  comforts  of  the  best  New  England  homes,  and  found  a  wel- 
come reception  to  the  families  of  the  most  opulent  of  other  churches 
than  his  own. 

He  began  his  work  as  an  educator  at  Wilbraham  Academy  in  Counecti- 
Begins  his  work  *^"t,  in  1826.  This  infant  seminary  had  thus  a  giant  for  its 
as  an  educator.  gj,g^  principal.  Well  docs  his  biographer  remark  that  Fisk 
was  now  in  a  position  for  which  he  was  admirably  qualified.  His  natural 
talents  and  liis  education,  his  great  facility  in  the  transaction  of  business, 
his  knowledge  of  men  and  quick  insight  into  character,  his  affability, 
sound  judgment,  and  practical  good  sense,  were  all  important  qualifica- 
tions for  his  new  position  of  usefulness.  His  government  was  eminently 
paternal.  He  carried  the  students  and  their  interests  on  liis  heart,  and 
his  efforts  in  their  behalf  were  truly  amazing.  Amid  all  the  toils  inci- 
dent to  the  founding  of  an  academy  for  the  growing  church,  Fisk  was 
ever  planning  for  better  things  and  grander  results.  No  man  had  a 
clearer  view  of  the  necessity  of  blending  culture  with  piety  in  order  to  the 
future  triumph  of  the  church,  and  the  permanent  security  of  the  state. 
It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  eyes  of  the  whole  church  were 
turned  towards  him  as  their  natural  and  acknowledged  leader. 

To  invitations  to  high  stations  in  other  institutions  of  learning  and  in 
ecclesiastical  work,  he  returned  a  firm  declinature,  convinced  as  he  was 
that  the  honor  and  prosperity  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
North  were  most  intimately  connected  with  the  success  of  this  rising 
academy.  No  posts  of  honor  or  of  ease  could  for  a  moment  swerve  him 
fi'om  his  purpose  to  direct  the  educational  movements  of  the  church.  To 
the  success  of  this  darling  enterprise  were  consecrated  all  his  choicest 
powers.     To  such  heroic  men,  who  have  so  nearly  achieved  this  victory 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  WILBUR  FISK.  635 

of  self-abnegation,  has  the  church  ever  turned  in  its  hours  of  peril  and  in 
its  determining  crises.  The  Methodist  Church  in  America  had  reached  its 
educational  crisis.  Two  colleges  in  name  had  already  been  commenced  ; 
several  academies  and  seminaries  had  done  much  good  in  their  several 
spheres.  But  she  had  already  outstripped  all  other  churches  in  the  num- 
ber of  her  communicants  ;  wealth  had  greatly  multiplied  in  their  hands, 
and  a  strengthening  conviction  was  felt  by  the  leading  men  of  the  North 
and  East  that  in  order  to  meet  the  increasing  responsibilities  and  achieve 
the  largest  success  in  the  future,  Methodism  must  also  provide  for  the 
higher  and  liberal  education  of  her  sons. 

Acting  upon  this  conviction,  the  New  York  Annual  Conference,  at  its 
session  of  1829,  adopted  measures  for  the  early  establish- 

^  .        .        .  .  Elected  presi- 

ment  of  an  institution  of  collegiate  grade,  and  in  1830  Fisk  dent  of  Wesiey- 
was  elected  first  president  of  Wesleyan  University,  founded 
at  Middletown,  Connecticut.  Of  all  men  in  American  Methodism  he 
then  occupied  the  very  foremost  place.  He  brought  to  this  new  position 
ripened  powers  and  a  national  reputation,  and  thus  he  directed  public  at- 
tention to  this  enterprise  from  the  very  beginning  of  its  history.  He 
was  acknowledged  the  peer  of  the  ablest  collegiate  presidents  of  the 
country,  and  his  counsels  were  sought  in  the  settlement  of  many  impor- 
tant questions  which  were  pressed  upon  the  management  of  the  higher 
institutions  for  solution. 

Notwithstanding  her  financial  endowment  was  necessarily  limited  and 
inadequate,  Wesleyan  University  attracted  some  of  the  best  talent  of  the 
church,  and  her  students  compared  most  favorably  with  those  of  the 
older  colleges.  The  supreme  desire  of  Dr.  Fisk  was  to  send  forth  a 
body  of  men  who  should  exemplify  a  sanctified  manhood,  and  become 
important  forces  in  properly  moulding  public  opinion.  Hence  he  spared 
no  pains  to  foster  in  the  university  a  controlling  religious  influence.  His 
holy  life  gave  great  weight  to  his  earnest  personal  appeals  to  consecrate  ' 
the  powers  to  the  service  of  Christ.  The  revivals  of  religion  among 
the  students  gave  him  inexpressible  delight ;  "  These  young  men,"  said 
he,  "  are  training  and  girding  themselves  for  the  great  enterprise  of  sub- 
duing the  world  to  Christ,  and  how  strongly  does  this  commend  our  lit- 
erary institutions  to  the  patronage  of  the  Church !  " 

It  was  to  the  great  West  of  the  American  continent,  which  was  being 
so  rapidly  populated,  and  which  he  saw  was  in  the  near  fut- 
ure  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  the  nation,  that  Fisk 
frequently  turned  his  most  anxious  thought.  This  belt  of  population 
would  be  a  belt  of  barbarism  unless  the  churches  should  throw  into  its 
midst  the  leavening  influences  of  the  gospel.  Preachers  and  teachers 
could  with  the  greatest  difficulty  keep  pace  with  the  restless  enterprise 
of  the  immigrants.  He  saw  that  to  save  these  new  empires  to  an  en- 
lightened Christianity,  and  to  lay  firmly  the  foundations  of  their  institu- 


636  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

tions,  political,  social,  and  educational,  a  host  of  young  men  properly 
trained  and  burning  with  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  souls  must  be  pre- 
pared in  his  own  college.  Hence  his  untiring  industry  to  supply  this 
pressing  need ;  hence  his  wide  correspondence  with  the  foremost  men  of 
his  own  and  other  churches  on  a  subject  which  so  constantly  pressed 
upon  his  attention.  The  results  have  fully  justified  these  anxieties  and 
these  sacrificing  labors.  Much  of  the  wonderful  success  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  much  of  the  broad 
and  enlightened  policy  adopted  in  her  work,  have  been  the  immediate 
result  of  the  advice  of  Wilbur  Fisk,  and  of  the  laboi-s  of  the  alumni  of 
'Wesleyan  University.  "  I  wish  we  could  fill  that  country  with  sound, 
pious  teachers,"  said  he.  "  Indeed,  I  want  to  send  out  enough  to  set  the 
world  on  fire !  I  have  done  educating  youths  for  themselves ;  my  sole 
object,  I  think,  will  be  hereafter  to  educate  all  I  can  get  for  the  world." 
This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  its  his- 
tory so  large  a  proportion  of  the  alumni  of  Wesleyan  University  became 
preachers  and  teachers. 

A  man  of  superior  culture  and  broad  views,  whose  sympathies  were  as 
wide  as  humanity,  and  yet  under  the  direction  of  a  sound 

Anxiety  for  a  j  ^  j  _  ,        n    r-    •         • 

trained  minis-  judgment,  could  uot  but  be  keenly  alive  to  the  deficiencies 
^^'  of  the  ministry  of  his  church  in  order  to  the  most  effective 

work  in  the  future.  Hitherto  the  preachers  of  the  Methodist  Church  had 
accomplished  marvelous  results  by  virtue  of  an  untiring  industry  and  an 
Tinquenchable  zeal.  Other  churches  had  been  thereby  greatly  stimulated, 
and  yet  they  had  yielded  nothing  of  their  former  intellectual  and  profes- 
sional preparation.  Fisk,  therefore,  clearly  saw  that  unless  more  gen- 
erous provisions  were  made  for  theological  training,  the  Methodist  clergy 
must  soon  work  at  a  fearful  disadvantage,  and  the  influence  of  that  com- 
munion must  steadily  decline.  Consistently  with  its  history,  the  Meth- 
odist Church  had  hitherto  done  what  was  possible  to  instruct  its  can- 
didates in  doctrines  and  polity.  Their  theological  seminary  had  been  in 
the  field,  their  professor  of  theology  had  been  the  senior  preacher,  under 
whose  direction  the  junior  was  to  study  and  work ;  the  examinations 
were  held  at  the  session  of  the  annual  conference,  and  thus  a  not  insig- 
nificant degree  of  knowledge  and  mental  discipline  was  secured.  The 
great  defect  of  this  system  was  its  inability  to  prepare  raw  material  for 
the  responsibilities  of  the  Christian  pulpit  and  pastorate,  since  the  cir- 
cumstances were  often  very  untoward,  and  the  senior  preachers  them- 
selves were  frequently  insufiiciently  prepared  to  be  guides  to  those  who 
were  under  their  supervision.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  young 
itinerant  to  painfully  study  out  his  Greek  Testament  by  the  light  of  the 
pitch-pine  fire  in  the  cabin  of  the  pioneer,  and  master  his  systematic 
theology  in  the  saddle  while  hurrying  forward  to  his  distant  appoint- 
ment.    But  however  zealous,  and  however  industrious,  these  preachers 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  WILBUR  FISK.  637 

could  not  be  thus  fully  prepared  for  ministering  to  a  more  settled  and 
intelligent  society,  which  must  soon  succeed  to  this  initial  period.  Fisk, 
in  common  with  a  few  other  broad-minded  men,  was  deeply  anxious 
to  supply  this  felt  deficiency  in  the  training  of  the  ministry.  He  did 
not,  however,  favor  the  founding  of  separate  theological  seminaries.  His 
opposition  came  from  lack  of  funds,  from  want  of  properly  qualified 
professors,  and,  most  of  all,  from  a  fear  that  the  instruction  in  these  ex- 
clusively theological  schools  might  be  too  speculative  in  character  and 
result  in  mere  dogmatism,  or  that,  by  being  excluded  for  a  term  of  years 
from  the  activities  of  Christian  work,  the  ardor  of  the  piety  of  the  can- 
didates might  be  unhappily  lessened  and  chilled.  It  is  well  known  that 
many  of  the  ablest  men  of  other  churches  still  share  this  feeling.  It 
was  his  custom  to  foi'm  voluntary  classes  in  theology  ;  by  this  means  the 
leisui'e  hours  of  the  students  could  be  occupied  by  such  subjects,  and 
their  reading  directed  to  such  topics,  as  would  more  especially  fit  them 
for  the  responsibilities  of  the  Christian  ministry.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  many  who  now  occupy  foremost  places  in  American  Methodism, 
received  their  strongest  impulses  and  caught  their  burning  enthusiasm  in 
these  theological  classes  of  Dr.  Fisk. 

Closely  related  to  theological  education  was  the  subject  of  missions. 
"  The  field  is  the  world,"  said  the  Divine  Christ,  "  The  j^eai  for  mis- 
world  is  my  parish,"  said  John  Wesley.  From  the  hour  of  *'°°^- 
his  consecration  to  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry,  Fisk  had  flamed 
with  missionary  zeal.  Two  classes  of  missions  had  specially  interested 
him,  namely,  that  to  Liberia,  on  account  of  its  connection  with  the 
scheme  of  African  colonization,  whose  cause  he  had  heartily  espoused, 
and  that  to  the  native  Indian  tribes  both  in  Upper  Canada  and  in  Ore- 
gon. For  the  former  mission  he  had  offered  himself  in  person  ;  for  the 
use  of  the  Mohawks  he  had  urged  the  translation  of  a  portion  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and  the  Flathead  mission  in  Oregon  was  his  own  origination. 
Hence  his  great  concern  as  an  educator  was  to  keep  the  wants  of  the 
missionary  work  ever  prominently  before  the  thought  of  the  students  of 
the  uuiversity,  and  his  platform  efforts  at  the  conferences  and  on  an- 
niversary occasions  were  always  powerful  and  effective. 

The  arduous  labors  and  the  constant  anxieties  attendant  on  founding 
the  university,  tofjether  with  his  consuming  zeal  for  every 

...  V     ,  .,         ,  .  ,      ,      T  T  •  .  1       Tour  to  Europe. 

religious  and  philanthropic  work,  had  made  serious  inroads 
upon  a  constitution  naturally  delicate  and  now  terribly  overworked.  It 
was,  therefore,  a  necessity  that  he  leave  his  work  for  a  time  and  seek 
recreation  in  the  Old  World.  Consequently  in  the  autumn  of  1835  he 
embarked  in  company  with  a  few  friends  for  Europe.  He  was  charged 
with  duties  in  themselves  onerous  and  honorable,  which  he  discharged  in 
a  manner  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  great  church  whose  delegate  he  was, 
and  with  a  dignity  and  an  unction  which  proved  a  blessing  to  the  British 


638  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

Wesleyan  conference  which  received  him.  On  this  entire  tour  his  was 
the  same  inquiring  mind,  the  same  tender  heart,  the  same  loving  solici- 
tude for  the  students  and  for  the  philanthropic  and  religious  enterprises 
to  which  he  had  consecrated  his  life. 

During  his  absence  in  Europe  he  was  elected  a  bishop  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church  by  a  very  lar2;e  majority  ;  indeed,  his 

Elected  bishop         ,        5  ,     .,     ■,       .,-,,./,,  .  ,  ,     ,     .1 

of  the  M.  E.  election  was  hailed  with  delight  by  the  entire  church  botn 
North  and  South.  To  this  expression  of  confidence  and 
esteem  Dr.  Fisk  felt  that  he  must  return  most  careful  and  deliberate  an- 
swer ;  but  after  mature  study  he  concluded  that  his  was  a  mission  of 
Christian  education  rather  than  a  mission  of  general  superintendency  in 
the  entire  church.  While  this  decision  was  a  matter  of  surprise  to  many, 
and  of  earnest  protest  on  the  part  of  some  of  his  most  loved  friends,  to 
Fisk  himself  the  way  of  duty  seemed  plain. 

On  his  return  from  Europe  he  brought  the  increased  power  coming 
Devotion  to  stu-  ^"01^  travel  and  wide  observation  to  bear  upon  the  univer- 
dents.  gity  of  his  own  Creation,  and  now  of  his  strengthening  and 

almost  consuming  love.  The  piety,  humility,  and  simplicity  of  this  truly 
saintly  man  had  become  well-nigh  perfected.  No  one  could  be  more 
free  from  all  assumption  of  superiority  in  his  intercourse  even  with  the 
most  lowly ;  none  could  be  less  careful  of  that  dignity  which  so  many 
believe  should  be  thrown  over  men  in  high  official  station.  From  this 
time  his  preaching  became  even  more  warm  and  evangelical  than  ever 
before.  During  a  most  precious  revival  with  which  Middletown  was 
blessed  under  the  pastorate  of  the  recently  deceased  Dr.  C.  K.  True,  in 
1837,  the  students  of  the  university  became  deeply  interested  for  their 
own  salvation.  This  noble  and  holy  president  now  became  an  angel  of 
guidance  to  many  a  young  man,  who  afterwards  successfully  proclaimed 
to  others  that  gospel  which  had  there  saved  his  own  soul.  Fisk's  pul- 
pit and  chapel  ministrations  during  this  period  of  refreshing  were  di- 
vested of  all  those  stately  forms  of  art  with  which  too  many  delight  to 
clothe  their  thoughts,  and  were  in  simplicity  aad  in  the  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit ;  thus  they  were  a  powerful  means  of  arousing,  comforting, 
encouraging,  and  instructing  the  young  men  who  have  since  occupied 
the  foremost  stations  in  the  educational  and  ministerial  work  of  the 
Methodist  Church.  It  is  probable  that  no  college  president  ever  se- 
cured a  more  complete  respect  and  love  of  his  students  and  faculty, 
or  a  more  constant  affection  and  confidence  of  the  church  at  large.  His 
piety  was  so  deep,  vigorous,  and  uniform,  yet  so  natural,  cheerful,  and 
utterly  lacking  in  officiousness  and  cynicism,  that  it  became  diffusive  and 
pervasive,  and  warming  like  the  sunlight.  His  gentle  dignity  and  grace, 
his  total  unselfishness,  his  delightful  simplicity,  exalted  even  common 
duties  to  the  dignity  of  holy  opportunities. 

The  sunset  of  such  a  life  must  be  glorious.     As  with  the  early  Chris- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     JOHN  HENRY  LIVINGSTON.  639 

tians  in  the  Roman  catacombs,  so  Fisk's  dying  day  was  his  true  dies 
natalis,  and  the  anticipations  of  his  happy  spirit  left  their  impress  on 
its  former  dwelling-place  :  for 

"Living  light  had  touched  the  brow  of  death." 

He  died  February  22,  1839.     A  plain  shaft,  rising  in  the  little  college 
cemetery  at  Middletown,  bears  the  simple  inscription,  — 

WILBUR   FISK,  S.  T.  D. 

FIRST   PRESIDENT  OF  THE   WESLEYAX   UNIVERSITY. 

Him  American  Methodism  reveres  as  her  true  saint  in   the   work  of 
Christian  education.  —  C.  W.  B. 


LIFE  XIV.    JOHN  HENRY  LIVINGSTON. 

A.  D.  1746-A.    D.    1825.       REFORMED   (dUTCH), AMERICA. 

Among  the  ministers  of  the  Reformed  (Dutch)  Church  in  America, 
no  name  is  held  in  higher  veneration,  esteem,  and  gratitude  than  that 
of  John  H.  Livingston.  The  circumstances  under  which  he  was  led  to 
enter  the  ministry ;  the  valuable  services  which  be  vpas  able  to  render 
to  this  branch  of  the  Christian  church  at  a  most  disturbed  and  critical 
period  in  its  history ;  the  eminent  qualifications  of  heart  and  intellect 
that  he  brought  to  every  position  he  was  called  to  occupy,  and  with 
which  he  adorned  every  relation  of  life  ;  his  success  in  impressing  others 
with  the  divine  truths  and  spiritual  influences  that  filled  his  own  soul, 
—  all  endeared  him  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  attested  the  divine 
guidance  that  signally  marked  his  career. 

Like  many  another  of  the  most  devoted  and  useful  servants  of  God, 
he  was  connected  with  an  honorable  and  pious  ancestry,  and  pf  Dutch  and 
thus  shared  in  the  rich  promises  of  a  covenant-keeping  Scotch  imeage. 
God.  He  was  a  descendant,  in  the  fourth  generation,  of  the  Rev.  John 
Livingston,  the  eminently  devoted  and  successful  minister  of  the  gospel 
in  Scotland,  and  the  ancestor  of  the  Livingston  families  in  this  country. 
Upon  his  death  (August  9,  1672),  at  Rotterdam,  Holland,  whither  nine 
years  previous  the  bold  and  earnest  preacher  had  removed  to  escape  the 
intolerant  spirit  that  prevailed  in  his  native  country,  his  son  Robert 
came  to  America,  connecting  himself  by  marriage  with  the  distinguished 
Schuyler  family.    He  was  given  three  sons,  Philip,  Robert,  and  Gilbert.-^ 

1  Among  the  children  of  Philip  were  Philip  Livingston,  Esq.,  one  of  the  noble  patriots 
who  signed  the  declaration  of  American  independence,  and  devoted  his  best  energies  to  the 
serviceof  his  country,  and  William  Livingston,  LL.  D.,  for  several  years  governor  of  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  a  man  distinguished  for  remarkable  intellectual  force  and  ardent  piety. 
To  the  branch  represented  by  Robert  belonged  the  late  celebrated  Chancellor  Lmngston. 
(See  the  memoir  of  Livingston,  by  Rev.  A.  Gunn,  D.  D.) 


640  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

John  Henry  Livingston,  the  grandson  of  Gilbert,  and  son  of  Henry 
and  S.  Conklin  Livingston,  was  born  at  Poughkeepsie,  Dutchess  County, 
New  York,  on  the  30th  of  May,  1746.  After  studying  in  a  school  at 
Fishkill,  and  under  a  private  tutor  at  home,  he  entered  the  Freshman  class 
in  Yale  College  in  September,  17/)8,  at  the  early  age  of  twelve  years, 
and  graduated  with  honor  in  July,  1762. 

Being  ambitious  to  obtain  worldly  distinction,  he  decided  to  devote 
himself  to  the  legal  profession.  After  studying  two  years  his  health 
failed,  and,  fearing  that  his  sickness  might  i^rove  fatal,  he  became  anxious 
for  his  salvation,  and  earnestly  sought  pardon  and  peace  through  faith  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Though  favored  with  the  advantages  of  a  re- 
ligious education,  and  occasionally  impressed  with  the  transcendent  im- 
portance of  the  claims  of  God  and  eternal  realities,  still,  up  to  this  time, 
the  prizes  of  earthly  ambition  and  the  fascination  of  worldly  success  had 
filled  his  imagination  and  absorbed  his  thoughts.  But  God  had  a  higher 
and  nobler  work  for  him  to  do  than  his  own  plans  had  compassed,  and 
through  suffering  and  bodily  weakness  drew  him  to  Himself. 

On  recovering  his  health,  he  resolved  to  prepare  for  the  Christian  min- 
istry. Under  the  advice  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Laidlie,  of  New  York,  from 
whom  he  received  the  warmest  encouragement  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
theological  studies,  he  determined  to  enter  one  of  the  universities  of 
Holland.  He  was  greatly  influenced  to  take  this  step  by  the  hope  that 
his  residence  in  Holland  might  help  him  to  be  the  instrument  of  heal- 
ins:  the  sad  dissensions  that  existed  at  that  time  in  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church  in  this  country.  Accordingly,  on  the  12th  of  May,  1766,  when 
suidies  in  Hoi-  ^^  ^^^  scarcely  twenty  years  of  age,  he  sailed  for  Amster- 
ia°'i-  dam,  bearing  with  him  letters  to  distinguished  individuals, 

by  whom  he  was  cordially  received.  He  pursued  his  theological  studies 
with  diligence  for  four  years  at  the  University  of  Utrecht,  winning  the 
love  and  respect  of  many.  On  the  5th  of  June,  1769,  he  was  examined 
for  licensure  by  the  chassis  of  Amsterdam,  and  became  a  candidate  for 
the  ministry.  Soon  after  he  was  invited  to  become  the  second  English 
preacher  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
Having  received  the  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity  from  the  faculty  of 
the  University  of  Utrecht,  after  a  most  rigid  examination  conducted  in 
the  Latin  language,  and  having  been  ordained  by  the  classis  of  Amster- 
dam, the  young  divine  returned  to  his  native  country,  and  arrived  in  New 
York  September  3,  1770. 

His  personal  friends,  and  the  officers  and  members  of  the  church  over 
which  he  had  been  called  to  preside,  welcomed  him  home  with  the  warm- 
Labors  in  New  ^^^  affcction,  and  with  deep  gratitude  to  Almighty  God. 
York  city.  j)j..  Livingston  at  once  entered  upon  his  ministerial  work 

with  renewed  physical  health,  with  mental  powers  disciplined  to  careful 
study  and  laborious  investigation,  with  earnest  zeal  tempered  with  great 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JOHN  HENRY  LIVINGSTON.  641 

discretion,  with  a  heart  warm  with  love  to  Christ.  Pie  possessed  a  broad 
catholic  spirit  and  intense  desires  for  the  harmony  and  unity  of  the 
church  with  which  he  had  cast  in  his  lot. 

His  first  sermon  was  preached  in  the  Middle  Dutch  Church,  in  Nas- 
sau Street,  to  a  large  and  deeply  interested  audience,  from  1  Cor.  i.  22- 
24.  Although  he  was  associated  with  colleagues  of  established  char- 
acter and  pulpit  ability,  yet  he  manfully  assumed  his  full  share  of  labor, 
preaching  twice  on  Sunday,  visiting  the  people,  and  attending  two,  and 
sometimes  three,  catechetical  exercises  every  week.  It  was  soon  appar- 
ent that  he  was  rapidly  gaining  the  confidence  and  aiiection  of  his  peo- 
ple, and  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  entire  community.  The  fervor 
of  his  piety,  manifested  out  of  the  pulpit,  as  well  as  in  it ;  his  jjrudence 
and  Christian  courtesy  in  private  intercourse  ;  liis  earnest  and  attractive 
style  of  jireaching,  presenting  as  he  did,  to  saints  and  sinners,  the  truths 
and  promises  of  the  gospel  with  great  clearness,  force,  and  persuasive 
eloquence,  secured  for  him  a  wide  popularity,  based  upon  the  best  feel- 
ings of  the  human  heart. 

Soon  after  liis  settlement  in  New  York,  he  directed  his  efforts  towards 
effecting  a  reconciliation  between  .the  famous  Coetus  and  Conferentie 
parties,  that  had  so  long  and  so  seriously  divided  the  church,  —  an  object 
that  he  had  in  vain  attempted  to  accomplish  while  residing  in  Holland. 
To  ajjpreciate  the  magnitude  of  this  undertaking,  and  the  value  of  the 
services  rendered  to  the  church  by  the  settlement  of  the  difficulties, 
mainly  tlirovigh  the  instrumentality  of  Dr.  Livingston,  we  need  to  have 
before  us  the  details  of  the  unhappy  schism  that  had  destroyed  the 
peace  of  the  Dutch  churches  in  America,  and  had  raged  so  violently  as 
to  thi-eaten  the  destruction  of  the  denomination.  But  our  limits  will 
only  allow  us  to  quote  Livingston's  words,  in  connection  with  the  mo- 
tives that  prompted  him  to  remain  in  the  church  in  which  he  had  been 
baptized  and  reared :  "  There  was  another  motive  that  imperceptibly, 
yet  powerfully,  inclined  me  to  this  determination.  An  unhappy  schism 
and  controversy  had  for  several  years  subsisted  in  the  Dutch  churches 
in  America,  which,  unless  soon  suppressed,  threatened  the  annihilation 
of  that  whole  denomination.  The  precise  grounds  of  the  dispute,  or  the 
best  means  for  reconciling  the  contending  parties,  I  had  not  then  com- 
pletely surveyed.  The  existing  facts,  however,  were  notorious  and  afflict- 
ive; and  I  understood  enough  to  convince  me  of  the  inevitable  ruin  that 
was  imjjending,  and  must  soon  be  experienced  if  those  dissensions  were 
not  healed.  For  the  restoration  of  peace  and  prosperity  in  this  distin- 
guished portion  of  the  Lord's  vineyard  I  felt  an  ardent  desire,  and  it  was 
powerfully  impressed  on  my  mind  that  God  would  render  me,  however 
unworthy  and  unfit  for  that  arduous  work,  an  instrument  in  his  hand  to 
compromise  and  heal  these  dissensions,  and  to  raise  the  reputation  and 
establish  the  dignity  and  usefulness  of  the  Dutch  Church  in  America. 
41 


642         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

In  what  way  these  great  objects  were  to  be  effected,  or  how  the  Lord 
would  prepare  and  afterwards  employ  me  for  that  purpose,  I  did  not 
know ;  nor  did  this  excite  any  difficulty  or  uneasiness.  The  point  was 
settled  in  my  mind,  and  I  was  fully  persuaded  that  it  would  be  accom- 
plished. This  removed  all  further  hesitation,  and  fixed  my  determina- 
tion to  abide  in  my  own  church." 

In  about  two  years  after  he  began  his  efforts  to  effect  a  reconciliation, 
it  was  accomplished,  and  he  adds,  "  The  posterior  dealings 

Unites  the  .  .  .  f  i^ni  n 

Dutch  Re-  of  divinc  Providence,  and  the  gracious  fulfillment  of  my 

expectation,  have  afforded  me  abundant  evidence  that  my 
choice  has  been  crowned  with  the  divine  approbation." 

In  October,  1775,  Dr.  Livingston  was  married  to  Sarah,  the  youngest 
daughter  of  Philip  Livingston,  at  Kingston,  whither  the  family  had  re- 
moved from  New  York,  on  account  of  an  apprehended  invasion  by  the 
British  forces.  A  more  happy  connection  could  scarcely  have  been 
formed,  as  the  lady  was  distinguished  for  all  those  qualities  of  heart  and 
character  that  constitute  the  tranquillity  and  joy  of  a  Christian  home. 
As  many  families  had  left  New  York,  which  was  in  a  defenseless  con- 
dition, and  the  congregations  were  greatly  broken  up.  Dr.  Livingston  re- 
mained for  some  time  with  his  father-in-law,  visiting  New  York  as  often 
as  was  practicable,  and  preaching  (alternately  with  Dr.  Laidlie,  who  had 
removed  to  Eed  Hook)  to  the  remnant  of  the  flock  until  September, 
1776,  when  the  British  forces  took  possession  of  the  city. 

Soon  after,  he  was  invited  by  the  consistory  of  the  Dutch  Church  in 
Albany  to  preach  for  them  during  his  exile,  or  as  long  as  it  might  suit 
his  convenience.  He  removed  to  Albany  with  Mrs.  Livingston  and  his 
infant  son,  and  labored  in  conjunction  with  the  devoted  and  excellent 
Dr.  Westerle  for  three  years,  when,  owing  to  the  feeble  state  of  his 
wife's  health,  he  retired  to  the  Livingston  manor.  By  the  people  of 
Albany  he  was  highly  appreciated  and  beloved  for  his  faithful  and  at- 
'tractive  presentation  of  gospel  truth,  his  ardent  piety,  and  his  elevated 
(religious  conversation.  In  April,  1780,  a  call  was  extended  to  him  to 
settle  permanently  in  Albany ;  but  he  declined  it,  deeming  it  best  to  re- 
main at  the  manor,  and  preach  to  the  destitute  churches  in  the  vicinity. 
Wherever  his  lot  was  cast,  he  exercised  the  greatest  diligence  in  the  serv- 
ice of  his  divine  Master,  laboring  to  strengthen  the  faith  and  brighten  the 
hopes  of  God's  people,  and  to  win  souls  to  Christ.  The  national  troubles 
weighed  heavily  upon  his  heart,  and  he  fervently  prayed  for  the  success 
of  the  American  cause,  and  rejoiced  in  every  victory  that  liberty  gained 
•  over  oppression. 

After  remaining  about  eighteen  months  at  the  manor,  he  removed  to 
his  father's  residence  in  Poughkeepsie,  and  sujiplied  the  pulpit  of  the 
church,  at  that  time  in  want  of  a  pastor,  until  the  evacuation  of  New 
York  by  the  British  troops,  in  November,  1783,  when  he  returned  to  re- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JOHN  HENRY  LIVINGSTON.  643 

sume  his  pastoral  charge  in  that  city.  The  seven  eventful  years  since 
his  departure  had  wrought  sad  changes  in  his  congregation  and  wide 
circle  of  friends,  and  traces  of  the  outrages  committed  by  the  enemy 
were  visible  in  many  pajts  of  the  city.     Several  churches 

1  •  •  1-1  1        T.T-in       His  churches  at 

were  m  a  rumous  condition,  among  which  were  the  Miadle  the  close  of  the 
and  North  Dutch  churches,  that  had  been  used  as  prisons, 
the  interior  having  been  entirely  destroyed.  His  bosom  friend  and  wise 
counselor,  the  excellent  Laidlie,  had  passed  away  from  the  earth,  and 
of  the  four  ministers  of  the  Collegiate  Church,  connected  with  it  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war.  Dr.  Livingston  was  the  only  one  who  returned 
at  its  close  to  resume  his  ministerial  work.  Girding  himself  anew  for 
service,  and  seeking  guidance  and  strength  from  above,  he  undertook  the 
sole  charge  of  the  congregation,  and  was  indefatigable  in  his  labors  to 
sustain  and  advance  its  interests. 

After  the  unhappy  difficulties  in  the  denomination,  already  mentioned, 
had  been  removed,  and  harmony  was  restored,  a  plan  was  adopted  of  ap- 
pointing a  professor  of  theology ;  and  the  requisite  funds  having  been 
raised,  application  was  made  to  the  classis  of  Amsterdam,  and  by  them  to 
the  faculty  of  the  University  of  Utrecht,  to  recommend  a  suitable  person 
for  the  position.  They  at  once  referred  to  Dr.  Livingston  as  possessing 
higher  qualifications  than  any  one  they  could  send  from  Holland,  and 
advised  his  appointment.  But  the  storm  of  war  that  had  already  begun 
interrupted  the  project,  and  the  matter  was  deferred  until  peace  was  re- 
stored to  the  nation. 

In  October,  1784,  a  convention  of  ministers  and  elders  was  held,  and 
the  honorable  office  of  professor  of  theology  was  unani-  Tj^gQ^ogj^j^i  p^p. 
mously  conferred  upon  Dr.  Livingston,  who,  after  prayer-  lessor. 
ful  consideration,  declared  his  acceptance  of  the  same.  The  19th  of 
May,  1785,  was  the  time  fixed  for  his  inauguration.  The  exercises  were 
held  in  the  old  Dutch  church  in  Garden  Street,  and  the  inaugural  oration 
was  delivered  in  Latin,  before  the  General  Synod,  the  name  that  the 
convention  had  now  assumed.  The  subject  selected  was  "  The  Truth  of 
the  Christian  Religion,"  which  was  treated  with  liis  usual  argumentative 
force  and  clearness  and  elegance  of  style. 

But  the  duties  of  this  position,  added  to  the  care  of  a  large  congrega- 
tion, which  previous  to  the  war  had  been  served  by  four  ministers,  broke 
down  his  health,  and  for  change  of  air  and  necessary  exercise  he  re- 
moved in  the  spring,  or  early  in  the  summer,  of  1786,  to  Flatbush,  Long 
Island,  whither  his  students  followed  him.  Since  his  appointment  he 
had  lectured  to  the  class  five  days  every  week,  and  much  of  his  time 
at  this  period  was  necessarily,  yet  delightfully,  employed  in  gather- 
ing into  his  church  a  rich  harvest,  as  the  fruit  of  the  divine  blessing 
upon  his  faithful  labors.  During  the  nearly  three  years  that  he  was  sole 
pastor  of  the  church  he  received  over  four  hundred  persons  to  the  com- 


644  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

munion  on  profession  of  their  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  was 
"  one  joyful  revival  season,"  in  which  his  mental  energies  were  strength- 
ened and  his  soul  encouraged  and  stimulated  by  heavenly  influences, 
while  the  strain  upon  his  physical  powers  was  unavoidably  severe.  He 
was  willing,  however,  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  the  Master  who  af- 
forded him  such  signal  tokens  of  his  favor  and  approbation. 

The  rare  combination  of  natural  gifts  and  varied  acquisitions  of  this 
devoted  servant  of  the  Lord  enabled  him  to  serve  the  church  in  nearly  if 
not  all  the  departments  of  its  work.  In  1787  he  was  appointed  chairman 
of  a  committee  to  prepare  and  publish  a  selection  of  Psalms  for  the  use  of 
the  church  in  public  worship.  He  also  proposed  that  a  constitution  of 
the  church  be  drawn  up,  presenting  in  a  condensed  form  its  doctrine, 
worship,  and  government,  and  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  commit- 
tee appointed  to  prej^are  it.  His  associate,  Dr.  D.  Romeyn,  rendered 
most  efficient  and  important  service  in  this  work.  It  is  regarded,  how- 
ever, by  Dr.  Gunn  as  no  injustice  to  the  memory  of  this  able  and  most 
^  .^      X  .^         useful  divine  to  give  to  Dr.  Livingston  the  title  of  "  father 

Father  of  the  .        ^^  =" 

Reformed  Dutch   of  the  Constitution   of    the  Refornied  Dutch  Church  in  the 

constitution.  tt-io  i-       k  •        ti        rr\ 

United  otates  of  America.  This  constitution  was  sol- 
emnly ratified  by  the  General  Synod  held  at  New  York  on  the  10th  of 
October,  1792. 

Although  Dr.  Livingston  was  at  this  time  in  a  measure  relieved  of  his 
arduous  labors  by  colleagues  who  were  associated  with  him  in  his  minis- 
terial work,  yet  in  the  summer  of  1809  it  was  evident  that  his  health 
was  becoming  impaired  by  his  constant  toil.  In  consequence  of  this,  he 
was  excused  from  preaching  more  than  once  on  the  Sabbath.  On  the 
revival  of  Queen's  College,  at  New  Brunswick,  arrangements  were  made 
between  the  trustees  of  that  institution  and  the  General  Synod  that  the 
professorate  should  be  united  with  the  college,  and  in  October,  1810,  Dr. 
Livingston  was  transferred  from  New  York  to  New  Brunswick  to  fill 
the  double  office  of  professor  of  theology  and  president  of  the  college. 
It  was  a  great  sacrifice  for  him  to  sunder  the  tender  ties  that  had  so 
long  bound  him  to  his  work  and  friends  in  New  York ;  but  his  noble 
spirit  was  accustomed  to  make  sacrifices,  and  after  forty  years'  service 
in  the  ministry,  and  twenty-six  in  the  professorship  (the  latter  without 
compensation),  he  yielded  to  the  stern  necessity  that  took  him  to  another 
field.  Under  his  administration,  which  continued  fifteen  years,  the  col- 
lege prospered,  and  during  his  ministry  of  fifty-four  years  nearly  two 
hundred  students  were  trained  under  his  instruction  for  the  gospel  min- 
istry. 

"While  in  apparent  health,  and  discharging  his  official  duties  with  vigor 
and  unwonted  cheerfulness,  his  career  was  suddenly  brought  to  a  close. 
Probably  the  last  letters  that  he  wrote  were  addressed  to  his  son  under 
date  of  January  13  and  15,  1825,  to  express  his  sympathy  in  the  death 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JOHN  HENRY  LIVINGSTON.  645 

of  an  infant  member  of  his  family.  His  tender  domestic  affection  ap- 
pears throughout  these  letters,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  closing  words 
of  the  last :  — 

"  Now,  my  dear,  my  sweet,  my  beloved  children,  I  mourn  with  you. 
I  help  you  to  bear  your  burdens  ;  my  heart  and  love  are  with  you.  I 
bless  you  both  most  tenderly,  and  all  the  precious  flock,  and  am  your 
loving  father,  J.  H.  Livingston." 

On  the  19th  of  January  he  made  several  visits  in  the  morning  and 
delivered  a  long  lecture  to  the  students  on  Divine  Providence.  The  even- 
ing he  spent  with  his  colleague  in  conversing  with  great  animation  and 
delight  upon  divine  themes.  After  engaging  in  family  worship,  in  which 
he  seemed  to  draw  specially  near  to  God,  and  to  remember  every  object 
dear  to  his  heart,  he  retired  at  the  usual  hour,  and  in  the  morning  was 
found  asleep  in  Jesus.  His  tranquil  countenance  and  natural  jjosition 
indicated  that  he  had  passed  away  without  a  struggle  to  the  realms  of 
celestial  light  and  everlasting  blessedness. 

Livingston's  presence,  in  public  and  private,  was  commanding  and  dig- 
nified, and  awakened  a  feeling  of  reverence  in  the  minds  poj-jrait  of  the 
of  strangers  and  those  who  were  most  intimately  associated  °i'^°- 
with  him.  He  was  tall  and  erect,  with  a  noble  person,  and  a  countenance 
beaming  with  intelligence,  affability,  and  kindness.  His  manners  were  pol- 
ished and  courteous,  and  for  the  members  of  his  family  and  his  intimate 
friends  he  manifested  the  most  tender  regard  and  affection. 

His  conversational  powers  were  remarkable,  and,  like  all  his  other 
gifts,  were  consecrated  to  the  good  of  man  and  to  the  glory  of  God. 
One  of  his  earliest  students,  who  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  private  inter- 
course with  him,  says,  "  I  never  knew  him,  in  any  circle  in  which  he 
might  be  found,  to  hold  a  conversation  of  any  length  which  he  did  not 
turn  into  some  channel  for  religious  improvement.  This  was  done  in  a 
manner  so  discreet,  appropriate,  and  gentle  as  not  only  to  avoid  awaken- 
ing prejudice,  but  t-o  conciliate  respect  and  good-will.  It  was  not  uncom- 
mon for  him,  in  mixed  companies,  when  the  secular  concerns  of  the  day 
were  the  theme  of  conversation,  to  interweave  religious  sentiments  and 
reflections  so  naturally  deduced,  so  wisely  stated,  and  so  courteously  and 
kindly  api3lied  that  even  those  who  were  generally  most  indifferent  to 
religion  could  not  but  reverence  it  as  it  thus  appeared  to  its  venerable 
representative  and  minister.  In  his  intercourse  with  Christians  his  con- 
versation was  like  ointment  poured  forth,  and  his  pupils  will  testify,  one 
and  all,  that  they  never  enjoyed  an  interview  of  any  length  with  him  in 
which  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  not  brought  prominently  before  them, 
and  valuable  hints  were  not  given,  bearing  upon  the  culture  of  the  spiri- 
tual life." 

As  we  may  naturally  suppose  from  a  testimony  like  this,  he  was  regu- 


646  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

lar  and  devout  in  his  private  religious  duties.  He  spent  much  time  in 
prayer  and  in  holy  meditation.  He  sought  strength  and  guidance  from 
above,  and  lived  near  to  God.  He  daily  walked  in  the  light  of  divine 
truth,  and  drank  from  the  fountain  of  living  waters,  and  streams  of  be- 
nign influences  flowed  from  him  in  every  direction.  His  piety  gave  tone 
to  his  whole  demeanor,  rendering  him  eminently  discreet  in  the  manage- 
ment of  ecclesiastical  matters,  tender  of  the  feelings  of  others,  and  wise 
in  the  selection  of  the  best  means  for  the  best  ends.  He  was  cautious 
rather  than  bold  and  adventurous  in  proposing  and  advocating  measures 
for  the  good  of  the  church,  and  yet  ever  evinced  the  greatest  courage  in 
sustaining  its  doctrines  and  discipline,  and  persevering  in  the  support  of 
whatever  he  deemed  vital  to  its  welfare  and  prosperity.  He  loved  and 
maintained  with  the  warmest  affection  and  unwavering  determination  the 
cardinal  truths  of  Christianity,  receiving  with  implicit  faith  the  words  of 
inspiration,  and  accepting  Christ  as  the  centre  of  theology,  the  mediator 
between  God  and  man,  the  only  source  of  pardon  and  eternal  life. 

As  a  preacher,  Dr.  Livingston  attained  to  a  distinguished  rank.  His 
Of  the  reacher  Commanding  personal  appearance,  his  striking  elocution 
and  professor.  ^nd  characteristic  gesticulation,  his  deep  convictions  of  the 
absolute  truth  of  God's  Word,  and  his  vivid  apprehension  of  the  tre- 
mendous consequences  of  accepting  or  rejecting  the  gospel  message  ren- 
dered his  preaching  most  impressive.  The  success  attending  his  public 
ministrations  in  the  city  of  New  York  and  elsewhere,  when  in  the  full- 
ness of  his  vigor,  abundantly  attest  his  superior  pulpit  power.  He  usu- 
ally preached  from  carefully  prepared  copious  notes,  but  was  able,  with 
very  little  preparation,  from  his  large  intellectual  resources  and  liis  ac- 
curate knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  to  instruct  and  edify  his  hearers. 
His  appeals  to  the  impenitent  were  often  very  powerful  and  search- 
ing, but  he  specially  loved  to  revive  the  hopes  of  the  desponding,  and  to 
cheer  the  weary  pilgrims  in  their  struggles  to  overcome  sin  and  the 
world,  and  win  the  rewards  that  were  set  before  them.  He  loved  to  un- 
fold the  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises,  that  make  the  blessed- 
ness and  glories  of  the  future  a  present  consolation,  stimulus,  and 
power. 

To  the  professor's  chair  Dr.  Livingston  brought  a  knowledge  of  the 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages,  a  rich  fund  of  theological  learn- 
ing, and  the  varied  and  choice  acquisitions  he  had  gained  during  his 
four  years'  connection  with  the  university  at  Utrecht,  of  whose  distin- 
guished theologian,  Bonnet,  he  had  been  a  favorite  pupil.  His  manner 
of  giving  instruction  was  calculated  to  awaken  the  earnest  attention  and 
interest  of  his  pupils.  He  delivered  his  lectures  with  ease,  clearly  pre- 
senting the  topics  in  logical  order,  showing  the  authority  and  harmony 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  and  their  relations  to  human  belief  and 
practical  life.     With  his  students  he  sat  as  a  father  among  his  children, 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]  WILLIAM   WHITE.  647 

and  their  respect  and  affection  for  him  prepared  them  to  receive  his  in- 
structions to  their  hearts  as  well  as  their  intellects.  Their  subsequent 
faithfulness  in  preaching  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  their  adherence 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  and  their  success  in  the  ministry,  bear 
testimony  to  the  value  of  his  training  and  teachings,  and  the  moulding 
influence  of  his  godly  character  and  life. 

While  the  Reformed  (Dutch)  Church  has  an  existence,  the  name  of 
John  H.  Livingston  will  be  held  in  the  highest  veneration,  and  in  most 
affectionate  and  grateful  remembrance.  —  R.  W.  C. 


LIFE  XV.     WILLIAM   WHITE. 

A.  D.  1748-A.  D.  1836.      EPISCOPALIAN,  —  AMERICA.^ 

William  White,  the  son  of  Colonel  Thomas  and  Esther  White,  was 
born  in  Philadelpliia,  on  the  4th  of  April,  1748,  New  Style.  He  gradu- 
ated at  seventeen  from  the  then  College  of  Philadelphia  (now  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania),  and,  yielding  to  the  call  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he 
determined  at  that  early  age  to  devote  himself  to  the  Christian  ministry. 
Accordingly,  he  began  his  theological  studies.  The  exercises  which  most 
interested  and  benefited  him  were  those  held  by  himself  and  four  other 
young  men  looking  forward  to  the  ministry,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Smith,  the  provost  of  the  college.  During  the  Sun- 
day evenings  of  a  few  months  for  three  successive  years,  these  young 
men  wrote  out  and  delivered  notes  and  exegesis  upon  Bible  history. 
These  exercises,  having  been  first  submitted  to  the  provost  for  correction 
and  approval,  were  then  delivered  in  public  in  the  hall  of  the  old  college, 
two  speaking  in  turn  each  evening,  and  the  provost  at  the  conclusion  en- 
larged on  the  themes  discussed  by  these  youths. 

"  Although,"  says  Bishop  White,  "  this  was  far  from  being  a  comjjlete 
course  of  ecclesiastical  studies,  it  called  to  a  variety  of  reading  and  to  a 
concentration  of  what  was  read."  "  There  was  also  use,"  he  adds,  "  in 
the  introduction  to  public  speaking." 

Five  years  of  this  kind  of  study  were  passed  in   this  city,  prolonged 

in  his  case,  because  he  had  graduated  so  early  from  college.    There  were 

then  no  schools  of  the  prophets,  wherein  the  candidates  for  the  ministry 

could  prepare  themselves  for  their  sacred  office.     The  desultory  teaching 

of  i^rivate  and  ii'responsible  ministers  was  all  that  could  be  obtained 

after  the  pupil  had  taken  his  college  degree. 

1  Of  this  life  story,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Bacon  Stevens,  bishop  of  the  (P.  E.)  dio- 
cese of  Pennsj'lvania,  only  the  opening  and  closing  sentences  were  prepared  by  its  au- 
thor for  this  work.  The  remaining  portions,  with  other  interesting  matter,  were  read  on 
the  occasion  of  the  reinterment  of  the  remains  of  William  White  in  the  chancel  of  Christ 
Church,  Philadelphia,  in  1876,  and  were  published  in  pamphlet  form  for  a  limited  circula- 
tion. —  H.  M.  M. 


648  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Having  pursued  his  studies  diligently  and  conducted  himself  with  so- 
briety and  discretion,  young  White  was  ready  for  his  ordination.     But 
here  another  difficulty  rose  before  him.     There  was  no  bishop  in  Amer- 
ica, and  to  obtain  orders  he  must  cross  the  Atlantic  and  seek 

Obliged  to  seek  i       i         i         c    t-^       t  i  mi  • 

ordination  them  at  the  hands  of  liinglish  prelates.     Ihis  was  a  griev- 

ous hardship  for  the  ministerial  candidates,  and  was  a  se- 
rious drawback  to  the  prosperity  of  the  church  in  the  colonies  of  Great 
Britain.  A  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  then  was  quite  a  different  thing 
from  a  voyage  now.  One  fifth  of  all  the  candidates  who  set  sail  for 
England  perished  abroad. 

When  to  this  danger  of  the  seas  was  added  the  loss  of  time  and  the 
expense  of  the  voyages  to  and  fro,  costing  usually  one  hundred  pounds, 
a  sum  equivalent  to  the  yearly  salary  of  most  of  the  clergy  at  that  time, 
we  can  easily  understand  what  a  formidable  barrier  existed  against  the 
increase  of  the  ministry,  and  how  much  moral  courage  and  firmness  of 
purpose  were  requisite  before  a  young  man  would  resolve  to  take  up  such 
heavy  crosses  in  order  to  become  a  minister  of  Christ. 

These  colonies  were  then  under  the  episcopal  jurisdiction  of  the  lord 
bishop  of  London,  who  superintended  them  by  means  of  certain  clergy- 
men who  were  termed  commissaries,  and  to  whom  was  committed  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  This  arrangement,  however, 
only  partially  remedied  the  evil  arising  from  their  not  having  any  bishop. 
Churches  were  unconsecrated,  the  baptized  were  not  confirmed,  candi- 
dates could  not  be  ordained,  and  the  wholesome  regimen  of  the  episco- 
pacy was  altogether  wanting.^  Such  was  the  condition  when  the  youth- 
ful White,  unable  to  get  orders  in  his  native  land,  was  about  to  proceed 
to  England  for  them. 

He  sailed  from  Chester  for  London  on  October  15,  1770,  in  the  ship 
Britannia.  Of  the  incidents  of  his  voyage  we  know  nothing,  but  can 
well  imagine  the  discomforts  and  dangers  which  at  that  period,  and  with 
such  comparatively  small  and  ill-furnished  ships,  he  must  have  endured. 

1  Yet  both  clei-gy  and  laity,  over  two  hundred  years  ago,  saw  the  necessity  of  bishops 
and  sought  earnestly  to  secure  their  appointment.  When  the  plan  was  proposed  in  1638 
to  send  a  bishop  to  the  American  plantations,  it  was  thwarted  by  the  outbreak  of  troubles 
in  Scotland.  When  in  1673  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alex.  Murry  was  nominated  by  Lord  Chancellor 
Clarendon,  and  approved  by  King  Charles  Second,  and  even  a  draft  of  letters-patent  was 
prepared,  the  plan  was  defeated  because  the  endowment  was  to  be  out  of  the  public  customs. 

When  again  in  1713  Queen  Anne  responded  favorabl3^to  the  request  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  that  bishops  should  be  appointed  for  the  colonies,  and  the  so- 
ciety actually  fixed  upon  and  purchased,  a  residence  for  the  bishop  at  Burlington,  New  Jer- 
sey, the  death  of  the  good  queen  again 'frustrated  the  design.  George  First  was  also  fa- 
vorable to  the  plan,  but  the  rebellion  in  Scotland  absorbed  the  public  mind,  and  Sir  Robert 
Walpole  discountenanced  the  project.  Later  still,  Edmund  Gibson,  bishop  of  London,  re- 
newedly  pressed  the  matter  upon  the  attention  of  the  government,  and  memorials  were  sent 
to  him  from  the  clergy  of  JNLaryland,  of  New  England,  of  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  and 
St.  Ann's,  Burlington,  urging  the  sending  of  a  bishop  to  America.  The  plan  was  sustained 
and  advocated  by  Bishops  Seeker  and  Tennison,  b}^  Bishops  Lowth,  Butler,  Benson,  Sher- 
lock, and  Terrick;  but  the  rising  difficulties  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country, 
and  the  extreme  opposition  and  jealousy  of  the  opponents  of  the  Church  of  England  in  this 
country,  prevented  the  execution  of  the  design,  and  so  the  church  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  had  existed  here  without  a  local  episcopate. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  WILLIAM  WHITE.  649 

Nor  will  it  be  difficult  for  us  to  surmise  the  joy  which  he  felt  when  the 
cry  of  "  Land  ho  !  "  was  sung  out  from  the  mast-head,  and  then  watched 
with  ever  increasing  delight  the  unfolding  panorama  of  the  shore,  until 
the  ship  cast  anchor  in  its  destined  port,  and  he  trod,  for  the  first  time, 
the  soil  of  the  dear  old  motherland. 

He  was  received  in  England  by  his  aunts,  Miss  White  and  Mrs.  "Weeks, 
and  though  he  took  lodgings  in  London,  he  spent  a  considerable  portion 
of  his  time  with  them  at  Twickenham,  ten  miles  from  Westminster, 
where  he  said  he  "  took  pleasure  not  only  in  the  society  of  an  agreeable 
circle  of  friends  to  which  I  was  admitted  in  that  earthly  paradise,  but  in 
rambles  in  the  neighborhood." 

He  had  come  to  England  for  a  solemn  purpose,  and  he  at  once  set 
about  the  work  of  securing  his  ordination.  Several  obstacles,  however, 
were  in  his  way.  First,  he  was  not  of  canonical  age.  The  thirty-fourth 
canon  of  the  Church  of  England  requires  that  a  person  desiring  to  be  a 
deacon  shall  be  three  and  twenty  years  old.  William  White  lacked  sev- 
eral months  of  being  three  and  twenty,  and  was  thereby  obliged  to  ob- 
tain a  faculty  or  dispensation  from  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  grant- 
ing ordination  infra  cetatem  for  persons  of  special  abilities,  before  the 
canonical  age. 

Another  difficulty  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  was  not  a  graduate  of  either 
of  the  two  great  universities,  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  as  specified  in  the 
thirty-fourth  canon.  While,  however,  the  usual  formal  testimonials  were 
drawn  up  ujjon  a  supposition  that  the  candidate  was  a  B.  A.  of  some  col- 
lege of  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  yet  the  same  canon  made  provision  for  such 
cases  as  had  not  these  degrees,  and  under  this  exceptional  clause  William 
White  became  eligible  for  holy  orders.  Having  obtained  the  various 
letters  testimonial  and  presented  them  to  the  bishop  through  his  secre- 
tary or  chaplain  a  mouth  before  ember  week,  he  was  then  requested  to 
present  himself  for  examination  by  the  bishop  and  three  clergymen. 
This  he  successfully  passed,  so  that  the  examining  chaplain  told  a  friend 
of  his  aunt,  "  that  his  examination  would  have  been  an  honor  to  either 
of  the  universities,"  and  then  he  subscribed,  according  to  the  requisition 
of  the  thirty-sixth  canon,  a  declaration  of  allegiance  and  of  the  royal 
supremacy ;  of  conformity  to  the  use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  an  acknowledgment  of  the  binding  authority  ex  animo  of  the  thirty- 
nine  articles,  "  taking  them  in  the  true  literal  usual  and  grammatical 
sense." 

These  and  all  other  preliminaries  having  been  complied  with,  he  was 
ordained  deacon,  December  23,  1770,  in  the  Chapel  Royal  of  St.  James's 
Palace,  Westminster,  by  Dr.  Philip  Yonge,  bishop  of  Norwich,  acting 
in  behalf  of  Dr.  Richard  Terrick,  bishop  of  London.  The  aim  of  years 
of  study  had  been  reached,  and  he  stood  trembling  on  the  threshold  of  a 
ministry  which  stretched  itself  onward  sixty  and  five  years. 


650  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

Not  being  of  canonical  age  to  obtain  priest's  orders,  he  remained  in 
His  two  years  in  England  uutU  he  could  do  so.  He  had  no  special  clerical 
England.  dutj  to  perform,  and  hence  was  left  free  to  pursue  those 

studies  which  fitted  him  for  a  higher  ministry,  and  make  that  acquaint- 
ance with  England  and  Englishmen  which  his  means  and  time  enabled 
him  happily  to  do.  Pie  took  several  journeys  to  different  parts  of  Eng- 
land and  passed  some  weeks  at  Oxford.  His  visit  to  this  university  he 
greatly  enjoyed,  making  friends  of  tlie  fellows  and  tutors  of  its  several 
colleges,  and  enjoying  the  public  exercises  not  only  in  the  preaching 
which  he  heard  in  St.  Mary's,  but  also  in  the  convocations  and  exami- 
nations at  which  he  was  present. 

The  religious  condition  of  the  Church  of  England  at  this  time  was  lam- 
entably relaxed.  Error  of  doctrine  of  a  subtle  kind  had  been  broached 
by  men  in  high  positions.  Worldliness  had  so  invaded  the  church  that 
routs  and  balls  were  held  even  in  the  palace  at  Lambeth,  a  fact  which 
drew  down  upon  Archbishop  Cornwallis  the  rebuke  of  George  Third. 
There  was  a  fearful  latitudinarianism  in  the  opinions  of  the  clergy  which 
led  to  continued  controversy.  The  discourses  from  the  pulpit  were  mostly 
of  a  philosophical  or  moral  character.  Church  peojDle,  and  even  the 
clergy,  indulged,  with  but  little  restraint,  in  the  so-called  pleasures  of  the 
chase,  the  ball-room,  and  the  theatre,  and  the  general  tone  of  morality 
throughout  the  land  was  low  and  doubtful.  As  a  consequence,  infidelity 
grew  apace  and  became  fashionable  and  popular.  That  this  statement  is 
not  too  broad  is  evident  from  the  words  of  Archbishop  Seeker,  who  died 
in  1768,  who  says  in  one  of  his  sermons:  "It  is  a  reproach,  I  believe, 
peculiar  to  the  Christians  of  this  age  and  nation,  that  many  of  them  seem 
ashamed  of  their  Christianity,  and  excuse  their  piety  as  others  do  their 
vices."  ^ 

The  great  doctrines  of  grace  so  strongly  set  forth  in  the  liturgy,  the  ar- 
ticles, and  the  homilies,  and  which  were  exjjounded  so  forcibly  by  the 
divines  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  were  weakened  and 
altered  into  almost  another  gospel ;  and  hence  had  arisen  stronger  dissent 
on  the  one  hand,  and  that  remarkable  Wesleyan  movement  on  the  other, 
which  was  at  that  very  time  sapping  the  strength  of  the  church  and 
raising  up  against  her  and  out  of  her  very  midst  some  of  her  strongest 
opponents. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  Church  of  England  when  William  White 
was  there  for  deacon's  and  priest's  orders.  To  one  coming  from  such  a 
remote  and  quiet  colony  to  the  bustle  and  excitement  of  London,  and  to 
one  educated  under  a  system  so  diverse  from  that  in  the  great  schools 
and  colleges  of  England,  there  was  much  to  dazzle  and  lead  asti'ay.  It 
is  therefore  the  more  to  be  thankful  for,  that  one  so  young  as  William 
White  was  enabled  to  bear  up  against  all  these  adverse  and  misleading 
influences,  and  not  only  to  maintain  an  unblemished  moral  character 


Cent.  XVn.-XIX.]  WILLIAM  WHITE.  651 

amidst  so  many  alluring  temptations,  but  also  to  retain  his  Christian 
faith  unswayed  by  the  theological  and  ecclesiastical  errors  then  rife  and 
freely  broached. 

April  25,  1772,  he  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  by  Dr.  Terrick, 
the  bishop  of  Loudon.  The  same  bishop  also  licensed  him  to  officiate 
in  Pennsylvania.  He  was  now  ready  to  return.  He  sailed  Returns  to 
from  England  in  June,  on  the  ship  Pennsylvania  Packet,  -^-merica. 
Captain  Osborne,  but  owing  to  calms,  light  winds,  and  the  bad  sailing 
qualities  of  the  ship  in  which  he  embarked,  he  did  not  reach  Philadel- 
phia until  the  19th  of  September,  when  he  once  more  entered  the  home 
circle  which  he  had  left  over  two  years  before,  and  now  stood  before 
them  an  ordained  minister  of  Christ. 

Before  he  left  England  he  had  been  invited  by  the  vestry  to  become  as- 
sistant mmister  of  the  "  united  churches,"  but  action  was  deferred  until 
the  30th  of  November,  1772,  when,  with  his  friend  and  college-mate,  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Coombe,  he  was  formally  elected  to  that  office,  and  he  at 
once  entered  upon  its  duties,  at  a  salary  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
per  annum. 

There  were  then  but  three  Episcopal  churches  in  the  old  city,  namely, 
Christ  Church,  St.  Peter's,  and  St.  Paul's,  and  but  little  over  two  hun- 
dred Church  of  England  clergymen  in  all  the  thirteen  colonies.  There 
was  no  bishop,  no  organized  diocese,  no  church  academy  or  church  col- 
lege, no  church  periodical,  no  Sunday-school,  no  missionary  society,  and 
no  hospital.  At  the  end  of  a  century  there  are  seventy-three  Episco- 
pal churches  in  Philadelphia,  the  clergymen  of  our  church  number  nearly 
three  thousand,  comprised  in  forty-eight  dioceses  and  missionary  juris- 
dictions, while  ninety-seven  bishops  have  been  consecrated  for  service 
in  our  branch  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  in  these  United  States.  There 
are  a  score  of  church  colleges  and  theological  schools,  an  equal  number 
of  church  periodicals,  while  our  great  societies  for  missions,  for  Sunday- 
schools,  for  church  publications,  for  educating  young  men  for  the  minis- 
try, and  our  hundred  asylums,  orphan-houses,  church  homes,  and  church 
hospitals,  like  a  net-work  of  holy  charity  cover  the  land. 

White  had  been  an  assistant  minister  of  the  united  churches  not  four 
years,  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  made,  and  the  po- 
litical distractions  and  turmoils  of  eleven  years'  restiveness  under  King 
George  culminated  in  the  birth  of  a  free  nation.  To  the  Episcopal 
clergy  in  this  country,  that  act  was  fraught  with  disaster.  At  their  or- 
dination they  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king  ;  in  their  lit- 
urgy, which  they  had  solemnly  vowed  to  use,  were  prayers  for  the  king 
and  royal  family  and  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  and  with  few  ex- 
ceptions they  derived  their  support  from  the  stipends  paid  to  them  by 
the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts. 

They  were  thus  j^laced  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstone ; 


652  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

for,  if  tliey  yielded  to  the  American  spirit,  cast  oflF  the  supremacy  of  the 
crown,  and  renounced  praying  for  the  king,  they  violated  their  ordina- 
tion vows  and  lost  their  stipends,  and  if  they  continued  to  use  the  liturgy 
as  it  was,  they  compromised  themselves  before  the  public.  As  a  conse- 
quence, most  of  the  clergy  embraced  the  royal  side,  and  they  were  per- 
His  course  as  a  secuted,  fined,  beaten,  expatriated,  and  in  one  instance  at 
patriot.  least  slaiu.    William  White,  living  in  Philadelphia,  then  the 

political  centre  of  the  country,  and  knowing  the  sentiments  of  the  most 
wise  and  thoughtful  men  of  the  colonies,  was  ready  to  cast  in  his  lot 
with  the  fortunes  of  the  new  republic,  and  at  once  acquiesced  in  the 
change  which  the  vestry  of  the  united  churches,  on  the  very  day  when 
independence  was  declared,  required  its  rector  and  assistant  ministers  to 
make,  namely,  "  to  omit  those  petitions  in  the  liturgy  wherein  the  king 
of  Great  Britain  is  prayed  for." 

That  this  was  not  the  result  of  a  momentary  impulse,  under  the  po- 
litical excitement  of  the  time,  is  evident  from  what  he  says  in  his  MS. 
Autobiography,  where  he  records  his  careful  study  of  English  history 
and  the  English  Constitution,  from  the  times  of  the  Saxons  to  the  Revo- 
lution of  1688  ;  his  thoughtful  reflections  on  the  causes  of  American 
discontent,  and  his  deliberate  choice  of  adherence  to  the  policy  and  acts 
of  the  Continental  Congress.  His  firmness  and  courage  were  tested  by 
an  incident  connected  with  his  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  in  1776.  "  When  he  went  to  the  court-house  for  the  purpose,  a 
gentleman  of  his  acquaintance  standing  there,  observing  his  design,  in- 
timated to  him,  by  a  gesture,  the  danger  to  which  he  would  expose  him- 
self. After  having  taken  the  oath,  he  remarked,  before  leaving  the  court- 
house, to  the  gentleman  alluded  to,  '  I  perceive  by  your  gesture  that  you 
thought  I  was  exposing  my  neck  to  great  danger  by  the  step  which  I 
have  taken.  But  I  have  not  taken  it  without  full  deliberation.  I  know 
my  danger  and  that  it  is  the  gi-eater  on  account  of  my  being  a  clergy- 
man of  the  Church  of  England.  But  I  trust  in  Providence.  The  cause 
is  a  just  one  and  I  am  persuaded  will  be  protected.'  " 

The  next  year  he  was  chosen  chaplain  to  Congress,  then  sitting  in 
York  Town.  "  He  continued  chajilain  until  that  body  removed  to  New 
York.  When,  after  the  adoption  of  the  existing  Constitution,  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  returned  to  Philadelphia,  he  was  a^ain  chosen 
one  of  their  chaplains,  and  continued  to  be  so  chosen  at  each  successive 
Congress  by  the  Senate  until  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  to 
Washington,  in  1801."  He  was  thus  officially  brought  into  close  rela- 
tionship with  the  leaders  of  American  thought  and  action,  as  well  as 
personally,  through  his  brother-in-law,  Robert  Morris,  the  great  financier 
of  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 

In  1779,  Mr.  White  was  unanimously  elected  rector  of  Christ  Church 
and  St.  Peter's.     This  placed  him  virtually  at  the  head  of  the  church  in 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  WILLIAM   WHITE.  653 

Pennsylvania^  and  put  him  in  a  commanding  position  as  to  all  eccle- 
siastical affairs.  So  soon,  therefore,  as  the  American  successes  secured 
to  us  a  distinct  nationality,  he,  in  company  with  a  few  others,  took  counsel 
ton^ether,  looking  to  a  union  of  all  the  Episcopal  clergy  in  all  the  States ; 
and  it  shows  the  hiffh  estimation  in  which  he  was  held,  that   ^  , 

'^  _  _  ^  Father  of  the 

at  the  first  meeting  in  New  Brunswick  in  May,  1784,  he   American  Epis- 

.  ,  -,..■,  X       copal  body. 

presided  at  the  meetmg,  and  opened  it  with  a  sermon.     It 
is  not  necessary  to  detail  the  steps  which  led  to  the  formation  of  our 
American  church,  but  no  one  mind  was  more  directive  and  controlling 
in  all  the  assemblies  than  William  White's. 

He  was  the  first  to  suggest  the  introduction  of  the  laity  into  the  coun- 
cils of  the  church,  the  first  to  suggest  synodal  or  diocesan  action,  and 
the  first  to  suggest  a  general  convention  made  up  of  representatives 
from  the  lower  assemblies  ;  and  the  first  draft  of  the  constitution  was 
from  his  pen. 

In  this  constitution  there  were  engrafted  certain  principles  of  eccle- 
siastical law,  which  were  unknown  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  which, 
though  partially  appearing  in  some  of  the  older  constitutions  of  the 
Saxon  church,  and  of  the  primitive  eastern  dioceses,  had,  for  more  than 
a  thousand  years,  been  kept  out  of  sight  in  the  ascendency  which  the 
priesthood  had  claimed  and  exercised  over  lay  people.  Those  principles 
were :  (1)  the  organization  of  the  church  as  an  ecclesiastical  body,  with 
full  and  perfect  power  of  self-government,  and  entirely  independent  of 
secular  control;  (2)  the  introduction  of  the  laity  as  joint  councillors 
and  legislators,  with  equal  voice  and  vote  with  the  clergy  in  such  church 
conventions ;  (3)  the  giving  to  the  several  dioceses  the  right  to  elect 
their  own  bishops,  subject  to  confirmation  by  the  whole  church,  and  in 
which  election  and  confirmation  the  laity  have  equal  voice  with  the 
clergy  ;  4th,  the  full  and  equal  liberty  of  each  national  church  to  model 
and  organize  itself  and  its  forms  of  worship  and  discipline  in  such  man- 
ner as  they  may  judge  most  convenient  for  their  future  prosperity. 

Accustomed  as  we  have  been,  all  our  lives,  to  these  principles,  we 
cannot  understand  what  a  really  great  advance  was  made  in  the  then  ex- 
isting order  of  things,  when  Dr.  White  boldly  brought  them  out  and  had 
them  incorporated  in  the  fundamental  constitution  of  his  church.  The 
English  "  convocation,"  the  nominal  voice  of  the  Church  of  England, 
had  long  been  silent,  and  the  functions  of  that  clerical  assembly  were  so 
restricted  by  parliamentary  act  as  to  stifle  its  power.  With  a  political 
sagacity  that  grasped  at  once  the  sound  maxims  which  the  framers  of 
our  civil  government  embodied  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  with  a  foresight  which  saw  that  for  a  free  people,  with  free  institu- 
tions, the  church,  as  an  organism,  must  conform  so  far  as  possible  to  the 
liberal  views  of  the  body  politic ;  he,  with  his  few  companions,  in  his  study 
in  Walnut  Street,  above  Third,  drew  up  that  instrument  which  is  the 


654  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

churcli's  Magna  Charta.  And  what  is  the  result  ?  That  document, 
brief  as  it  is,  has  been  everywhere  hailed  as  one  of  the  wisest  ever 
penned  by  man  for  the  jjurposes  for  which  it  was  made.  Not  only  has 
it  worn  well  in  the  working  machinery  of  the  church,  for  more  than 
fourscore  years  ;  not  only  has  it  been  reproduced  in  its  general  princi- 
ples in  the  constitutions  of  forty-four  organized  dioceses,  not  only  has  it 
kept  us  together  amidst  all  the  strain  and  severances  of  civil  war,  but 
it  was  copied  in  its  essential  features  in  the  new  constitution  of  the 
Church  of  Ireland,  when  that  ancient  church  ceased  to  be  established  by 
law,  and  became  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1871,  self-governing  and 
free. 

On  the  14th  of  September,  1786,  he  was  unanimously  elected  bishop 
of  the  newly  formed  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  sum  of  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds,  currency,  was  voted  to  defray  the  necessary  ex- 
penses of  the  voyage  of  the  bishop  elect  to  and  from  England. 

On  the  2d  of  November,  the  same  year,  he  sailed  with  Dr.  Provost, 
who  had  been  elected  bishop  of  New  York,  from  New  York,  and,  eighteen 
days  after,  landed  at  Falmouth,  making  the  shortest  passage  across  the 
Atlantic  then  recorded. 

Through  the  kind  offices  of  John  Adams,  then  the  American  minister 
at  the  court  of  St.  James  (afterward  the  second  president  of  the  United 
States),  and  his  grace,  the  lord  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  prelim- 
inaries of  his  consecration  were  arranged.  On  the  4th  of  February,  he 
and  Dr.  Provost  were  consecrated  bishops  in  the  chapel  of 

Becomes  bishop. 

the  palace  of  Lambeth.  They  left  London  the  next  day 
for  Falmouth,  sailed  from  that  port  on  the  17th  of  February,  and  on  the 
afternoon  of  Easter  Sunday  landed  in  New  York.  The  day  of  their 
return  to  America  was  the  emblem  to  their  church  of  its  resurrection  from 
the  deadness  of  the  past  to  the  life  and  hope  of  the  future. 

Of  the  three  bishops  consecrated  in  England,  namely,  William  White, 
Samuel  Provost,  and  James  Madison,  Bishop  White  was  the  most  prom- 
inent and  active.  His  position  as  presiding  bishop  gave  great  weight  to 
his  opinions ;  and  his  thoughtful,  calm,  and  judicious  views,  quietly  ex- 
pressed and  firmly  held,  may  be  said  to  have  shaped  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  for  nearly  half  a  century.  He  is 
the  only  one  of  the  early  bishops  who  has  left  behind  him  published 
works,  unfolding  the  proceedings  of  those  early  efforts  to  organize  the 
church,  and  the  only  one  who  has  expounded  the  theological  sentiments 
of  our  creed  and  catechism  and  ordinal. 

It  is  most  fortunate  for  his  church  that  Bishop  White,  with  that  pru- 
dence and  foresight  which  always  distinguished  him,  wrote  out  his 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Prptestant  Episcopal  Church,"  his  *'  Lectures  on  the 
Catechism,"  his  commentary  on  "  The  Ordination  Offices,"  his  ten  "  Pas- 
toral Letters  of  the  House  of  Bishops,"  and  sundry  other  valuable  and 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  WILLIAM   WHITE.  655 

important  publications.  He  was  frank  in  tlie  expression  of  liis  views, 
and  manfully  defended  what  he  regarded  as  the  sound  doctrines  and  pure 
worship  of  the  church  over  which  he  presided.  As  we  look  back  to  the 
difficult  times  in  which  he  exercised  his  functions  as  one  of  the  founders 
and  legislators  and  subsequently  rulers  in  the  church,  we  cannot  but 
thank  God  that  so  blameless  a  man  in  his  Christian  life,  so  scholarly  a 
man  in  his  mental  culture,  so  calm  a  man  in  times  of  popular  excite- 
ment, so  forecasting  a  man  amidst  threatened  perils,  and  so  firm  a 
ma,n  amidst  the  unsteady  opinions  of  the  day,  was  given  to  the  church 
at  that  time,  to  be  to  it,  in  its  separation  from  the  mother  church,  and 
its  erection  into  an  independent  one,  what  Washington  was  to  the  civil 
movement  of  the  Revolution.  Both  were  men  of  marked  characteris- 
tics ;  each  eminently  fitted  for  his  respective  work,  each  saw  it  carried 
into  completion,  and  each  ruled  as  the  first  president  of  the  organ- 
ization. 

I  should  feel  myself  derelict  in  duty  did  I  not  state,  in  a  few  words, 
the  sentiments  of  Bishop  White,  so  far  as  they  bear  on  some  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical and  doctrinal  issues  of  to-day.  These  views  are  found  in  his 
carefully  prepared  volumes,  in  his  correspondence,  and  in  MSS.  left 
ready  for  the  press,  but  which  have  never  yet  been  given  to  the  public. 

From  these  sources  we  learn  that  Bishop  Wliite  would  have  had  no 
sympathy  whatever  with  those  radical  views  which  are  held  His  views  of  doc- 
and  taught  by  some  persons,  whereby  episcopacy  is  decried,  *"''®  ^^^  °'^'^®'"- 
the  prayer  book  reproached  as  teaching  error,  the  canons  of  the  church 
disregarded,  the  language  of  the  offices  of  the  church  omitted  or  altered, 
and  schism  and  secession  openly  urged,  if  certain  claims  are  not  author- 
itatively conceded.     For  this  spirit  he  had  no  favor. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  learn  from  his  writings  that  he  would  discoun- 
tenance and  reject  those  tractarian  and  ritualistic  teachings  and  doings, 
which  now,  alas,  are  so  stealthily  or  openly  proclaimed. 

I  cannot  better  set  forth  his  ideas  than  by  quoting  his  own  language. 
"  As  to  our  church,  although  she  commemorates  a  great  sacrifice  in 
the  Eucharist,  yet  she  knows  of  no  offering  of  anything  of -this  descrip- 
tion, except  in  the  figurative  sense  in  which  prayers  and  alms  are  sacri- 
fices. She  calls  the  place  on  which  her  oblation  is  made,  not  an  altar, 
but  a  table ;  although  there  is  no  impropriety  in  calling  it  an  altar  also, 
the  word  being  understood  figuratively.  And  so  as  to  the  minister  in 
the  ordinance,  although  she  retains  the  word  priest,  yet  she  considers  it 
as  synonymous  with  presbyter,  which  appears  from  the  Latin  standard 
of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  is  agreeable  to  etymology." 

In  his  conducting  of  public  worship  he  was  exact,  but  simple  and  un- 
ostentatious. He  regarded  the  service  as  a  worship,  not  as  a  spectacle ; 
to  be  rendered  with  reverence,  not  with  pompous  parade  ;  to  inspire  de- 
votion in  the  soul,  not  to  minister  to  the  mere  sensuous  and  a3sthetic  ele- 


656  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

ments  of  our  nature.  So  much  did  he  act  upon  these  principles  that  he 
never  bowed  at  the  name  ■  of  Jesus  in  the  Creed,  and  even  wrote  two 
articles  in  defense  of  his  not  doing  it.  He  never  turned  to  the  east 
to  say  the  Creed  or  the  Gloria  Patri.  He  never  in  the  pulpit  turned 
his  back  upon  the  congregation  during  the  ascription  after  the  sermon. 
He  never  preached  in  a  surplice,  but  always,  when  not  engaged  in 
episcopal  duties,  in  the  black  gown.  He  never  required  the  people  to 
rise  up  as  he  entered  the  church,  and  at  the  close  of  the  service  to  re- 
main standing  in  their  pews  until  he  had  left  the  chancel.  He  never 
asked  the  congregation  to  stand  up  while  he  placed  the  alms  basons, 
with  the  offertory,  on  the  Lord's  table,  or  notified  the  communicants 
to  continue  in  their  places,  after  the  benediction,  until  the  clergy  had 
reverently  eaten  and  drank  what  remained  of  the  consecrated  bread  and 
wine.  These  and  other  like  jiractices,  the  outci'oppings  of  sacerdotal 
assumptions,  were  utterly  foreign  to  his  wise  and  benign  views  and 
teachings. 

He  magnified  his  office,  not  by  arrogant  claims,  or  by  extolling  unduly  its 
sacred  functions,  but  by  a  loving  discharge  of  its  duties,  un- 
der the  eye  of  God,  in  the  humility  of  a  servant,  and  with 
the  fidelity  of  an  apostle.  His  loving  nature,  sound  judgment,  and  en- 
lightened mind  also  kept  him  from  holding  intolerant  or  unchurching 
dogmas  in  reference  to  other  Christian  bodies.  Throughout  his  long  life 
he  carried  out  the  spirit  and  letter  of  his  ordination  and  consecration 
vows,  —  "  to  maintain  and  set  forward  quietness,  peace,  and  love  among 
all  Christian  people."  His  views  upon  this  point  were  well  defined  in 
one  paragraph  of  the  instructions  which  he  gave  to  the  first  missionaries 
of  our  church  to  China  in  1835.  Addressing  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Hanson  and 
Lockwood,  the  bishop  says  :  "  In  the  tie  which  binds  you  to  the  Episco- 
pal Church,  there  is  nothing  which  places  you  in  the  attitude  of  hostility 
to  men  of  any  other  Christian  denomination,  and  much  which  should 
unite  you  in  affection  to  those  occupied  in  the  same  cause  with  yourself. 
You  should  rejoice  in  their  successes,  and  avoid  as  much  as  possible  all 
controversy  and  all  occasions  which  may  provoke  it,  on  points  on  which 
they  may  differ  from  our  communion,  without  conforming  in  any  point 
to  what  we  consider  as  erroneous." 

Acting  himself  in  this  spirit,  he  became  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Bible  Society  of  Philadelphia,  and  was  its  president  until  his  death. 

He  presided  at  its  annual  meetings  when  held  in  other  than  Episcopal 
churches,  and  when  its  anniversaries  were  held  in  our  churches,  ministers 
of  different  denominations  stood  before  him  in  the  chancel,  and  addi'essed 
the  people.  He  was  also  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Society  for  the 
Institution  and  Support  of  First  Day  or  Sunday  Schools,  an  organization 
made  up  of  Christians  of  different  religious  bodies.  Thus,  while  he  never 
compromised  his  principles  as  a  churchman,  or  sacrificed  a  single  convic- 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]  JACOB  ALBRIGHT.  657 

tion  of  duty,  he  yet  secured  the  respect  of  all  classes  of  the  community ; 
and  all  denominations  united  at  his  death  to  do  honor  to  this  prince  and 
father  in  Israel. 

Let  us  thank  God  for  the  life  and  labor  of  such  a  man.  "  He  being 
dead  yet  speaketh."  In  the  beautiful  language  of  Wordsworth  in  one  of 
his  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets,  — 

"  To  thee,  0  saintly  White, 
Patriarch  of  a  wide-spreading  family, 
Eemotest  lands  and  unborn  times  shall  turn, 
Whether  they  would  restore,  or  build,  — to  thee. 
As  one  who  rightly  taught  how  zeal  should  burn, 
As  one  who  drew  from  out  Faith's  holiest  urn 
The  purest  stream  of  patient  Energy." 

(Partiii.,  Son.  xv.) 

He  died  in  Philadelphia,  at  his  residence  in  "Walnut  Street,  on  Sunday 
the  17th  of  July,  1836.  "  His  end,"  says  his  biographer.  Dr.  Bird  Wil- 
son, "  was  marked  by  the  serenity  and  by  the  deep-seated  and  sweetly 
calm  religious  consolation  and  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God  through  the  Re- 
deemer, which  were  in  perfect  consistency  with  his  own  declared  prin- 
ciples of  religion  and  with  the  uniform  character  of  his  feelings,  con- 
versation, and  life."  —  W.  B.  S. 


LIFE  XVL    JACOB  ALBRIGHT. 

A.   D.    1759-A.   D.    1808.      EVANGELICAL   ASSOCIATION, —  AMERICA. 

Jacob  Albright,  the  founder  of  the  "  Evangelical  Association  of 
North  America,"  was  born  in  the  year  1759,  near  Pottstown,  Mont- 
gomery County,  Pennsylvania,  of  Pennsylvania  German  parents.  He 
was  baptized  in  infancy  by  a  German  Lutheran  minister,  and  at  a  later 
period  catechised  and  received  into  the  membership  of  the  Lutheran 
Church.  In  his  neighborhood,  experimental  and  practical  religion  was 
then  at  a  low  ebb  among  the  German  churches,  and  there  was  also- 
very  little  of  enterprise  and  business  among  the  people  of  that  section. 
Young  Albright,  however,  was  possessed  of  considerable  talent  and' 
energy,  and  hence  found  himself  embarrassed  by  his  surroundings.  The 
schools  of  those  days  were  "  home-made "  private  enterprises.  Penn- 
sylvania did  not  adopt  the  public-school  system  until  many  years  after- 
ward. In  such  a  school  Jacob  Albright  learned  to  read  and  write  Ger- 
man, and  a  little  of  arithmetic.  The  reading  and  writing  exercises  were 
quite  bare  of  grammatical  and  elocutionary  instruction.  Jacob's  mind 
did  not  feel  at  home  amidst  the  siirroundings  of  "  Fuchsberg  "  (Fox's 
Mountain),  as  that  section  was  popularly  called;  so  when  he  had  married 
Miss  Elizabeth  Cope,  he  moved  away  about  seventy  miles  into  Lancaster 
42 


658  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

County,  Pennsylvania.  In  that  naturally  rich  county,  he  found  that  bricks 
Early  business  were  needed,  and  tiles  much  in  demand  for  roofing  pur- 
career,  poses  ;  even  large  barns  as  well  as  houses  were  thus  roofed  in 
those  days  ;  so  he  started  a  "  Ziegelhlitte,"  or  a  tile  and  brick  yard,  having 
learned  that  business  when  he  lived  at  home.  He  was  quite  success- 
ful in  this  occupation,  and  was  highly  respected  by  his  customers  and  the 
peoj^le  generally,  who  called  him  the  "  tiler,"  which  title  some  prefaced 
with  the  valuable  adjective  "  honest."  In  the  midst  of  a  successful  busi- 
ness career,  and  surrounded  by  a  prosperous  family,  Albright  saw  death 
enter  his  household  in  the  year  1790,  and  carry  off  several  of  the  little 
ones  in  quick  succession,  which  deejily  pained  and  affected  him.  The 
pungent  funeral  sermons  delivered  by  Rev.  Anton  Howtz,  a  German  Re- 
formed minister,  so  touched  his  conscience  that  he  considered  these 
deaths  as  a  loud  call  of  God  upon  him  to  repent  and  turn  to  the  Lord. 
For  until  that  time  he  had  lived  careless  about  spiritual  and  eternal 
things  that  pertain  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  in  moral  darkness  and  sin, 
as  did  others  around  him.  He  now  fell  into  a  deep  trouble  on  account 
of  his  sins.  Strange  yet  true  it  was  that  he  could  not  find  any  one  who 
was  able  to  point  him  to  Christ  and  explain  the  simple  way  of  salvation 
through  faith  in  Him.  The  fact  was  that  in  his  chm'ch,  and  other  Ger- 
man churches  around  him,  justification  by  faith,  regeneration  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  assurance  of  adoption  into  God's  fam- 
ily were  unknown,  at  least  experimentally,  and  Christianity  consisted 
of  a  mere  outward  form  and  profession.  The  Methodists,  it  is  true,  had 
come  into  Albright's  neighborhood  by  that  time,  but  as  they  were  much 
despised  and  misrepresented,  Albright  did  not  go  near  them.  Finally, 
he  met  a  lay-preacher  named  Adam  Ridgel,  who  was  evidently  a  truly 
pious  man.  He  showed  Albright  the  way  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  they 
met  and  prayed  together^  until  Albright  could  claim  the  atonement  as 
availing  for  him,  and  thus  he  realized  that  Christ  died  for  him,  yea,  even 
him,  and  was  filled  with  peace  and  joy  in  believing.  With  a  heart  full  of 
gratitude  towards  God,  whom  he  now  could  address  as  "  Abba,  Father," 
he  wanted  to  tell  to  sinners  round  what  a  dear  Saviour  he  had  found, 
but  to  his  surprise  he  found  opposition,  yea,  even  persecution,  rising 
against  him.  He  now  looked  around  to  find  kindred  hearts  with  whom 
he  could  unite  in  spiritual  fellowship,  "  for,"  says  he,  "  I  needed  some 
•experienced  Christians  to  watch  over  me,  and  assist  me  in  fighting  the 
good  fight  of  faith,  and  working  out  my  soul's  salvation."  He  soon  saw 
the  necessity  and  advantage  of  being  under  good  church  discipline ;  he 
had  no  sympathy  with  such  as  wanted  to  be  free  from  the  "  yoke,"  as 
they  called  it,  of  a  proper  church  organization.  However,  in  his  own 
church  he  met  with  opposition  and  persecution ;  so  he  went  to  his  next 
neighbor,  who  was  a  Methodist  class-leader,  and  inquired  into  the  dis- 
cipline and  government  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  with  which 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JACOB  ALBRIGHT.  659 

he  became  higUy  pleased.  He  was  led  soon  to  join  himself  to  this  com- 
mimion.  He  thus  had  found  a  congenial  church  home,  and  went  forward 
serving  the  Lord  with  a  joyful,  willing  heart.  By  and  by  the  Methodists 
gave  him  an  exhorter's  license,  and  he  now  and  then  delivered  a  public 
address  to  his  fellow-Christians  and  fellow-men  which  was  not  without 
good  effect.  He  had,  however,  as  yet  not  the  least  thought  of  becoming 
a  preacher  of  the  gospel. 

During  the  first  few  years  of  his  Christian  course  he  learned  to  under- 
stand that  the  Germans  in  America  were  in  a  deeply  depraved  condition, 
and  he  earnestly  prayed  for  their  salvation  with  an  increasing  sympathy. 
He  now  asked  God  to  awaken  and  send  forth  good  shepherds  to  seek 
these  wandering  sheej),  and  lead  them  to  the  great  Chief-Shepherd,  who 
laid  down  his  life  for  them.  One  day,  while  he  was  thus  praying,  a  light 
shone  upon  his  soul,  and  a  question  arose  within  :  "  Was  it  caued  to  his 
mere  chance  that  the  deplorable  condition  of  your  fellow-  life-work. 
men  so  touched  your  heart  that  you  were  led  thus  to  pray  ?  Or  is  the 
hand  of  Him  who  guides  the  steps  of  a  man,  as  well  as  the  course  of 
nations,  in  this  matter  ?  How  would  it  be  if  his  infinite  love  had  chosen 
you  to  lead  your  brethren  into  the  way  of  saving  knowledge,  and  into  a 
participation  of  the  mercy  of  God  ?  "  In  his  soul  this  light  shone  clearer 
still,  and  he  heard  an  inward  voice  :  "  Go,  labor  in  my  vineyard.  Trust 
in  me  for  strength  and  help  and  success  in  saving  souls."  But  now 
arose  a  number  of  objections  in  his  mind.  He  said,  "  Lord,  there  are  so 
many  talented  and  learned  men  who  are  better  qualified  for  such  a  work, 
and  have  greater  resources  and  influence ;  behold,  I  am  so  feeble  and 
incompetent !  "  When  he  looked  at  himself  and  the  greatness  and  the 
difficulties  of  such  a  work,  he  became  discouraged,  and  asked  God  to  ex- 
cuse him  and  send  another  one.  But  then  his  conscience  would  tell  him 
that  he  must  obey  the  voice  of  God,  that  his  grace  would  be  sufficient, 
that  He  would  grant  him  the  sufficiency  from  above.  The  great  peril 
and  loss  resulting  from  disobedience,  and  also  the  great  reward  that  awaits 
the  faithful  servant,  were  clearly  portrayed  before  his  mind.  These 
cogitations  troubled  him  greatly,  but  he  was  not  willing  to  go  into  the 
vineyard.  Finally,  a  severe  sickness  befell  him,  which  brought  him  to 
the  brink  of  death,  and  he  recognized  herein  the  chastising  hand  of  his 
heavenly  Father.  He  humbled  himself  under  the  mighty  hand  of  God, 
asked  for  mercy,  and  solemnly  promised  the  Lord  if  He  would  restore  him 
he  would  go  and  preach  the  gospel.  He  then  rapidly  recovered,  and  his 
mind  was  again  filled  with  light,  and  his  heart  with  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost.  He  now  speedily  arranged  his  temporal  affairs,  and  started 
out  as  an  evangelist  and  itinerant  preacher  of  the  gospel,  which  he 
preached  wherever  he  found  hearers  and  open  doors,  in  houses,  churches, 
market-places,  barns,  on  the  roadside,  and  in  the  woods.  He  preached 
more  particularly  such  doctrines   as  involve  Christian  experience  and 


660  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

practice,  as  repentance,  faith,  conversion,  regeneration,  and  inward  and 
outward  holiness  according  to  the  Methodistic  view  of  these  doctrines, 
which  appeared  to  him  to  be  in  accordance  with  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
His  labors  were  blessed  with  good  results  in  the  salvation  of  sinners,  and 
soon  a  little  flock  claimed  him  as  their  spiritual  father  and  looked  to  him 
as  theii"  God-given  pastor. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  that  time  did  not  intend  to  enter 
upon  the  German  field  in  America,  and  hence  the  labors  of  Mr.  Albright 
were  not  regarded  by  her,  and  so  it  happened  —  perhaps  providentially, 
for  Providence  often  "  happens  "  —  that  Albright  was,  by  the  course  of 
events,  separated  from  that  church,  while  he  was  following  a  divine  call, 
of  which  he  was  fully  persuaded. 

It  was  in  the  month  of  October,  1796,  that  he  commenced  preaching 
the  gospel;  in   1800  three   classes  or  confifresations  were 

Organizes  the  .  .  o     o 

Evangelical  As-  Organized;  in  1803  a  council  was  held  by  the  chief  mem- 
bers of  the  society  to  consider  what  steps  might  be  neces- 
sary to  give  the  work  something  more  of  form  and  organization.  The 
members  of  this  council  consisted  of  some  of  the  most  respectable  citi- 
zens of  Pennsylvania,  who  by  the  grace  of  God  had  been  led  to  Christ 
through  the  labors  of  Albright.  They  adopted  a  declaration  in  which  they 
firmly  testified  to  the  good  character  of  Jacob  Albright  as  a  man  and 
a  Christian,  and  recognized  him  as  their  pastor,  and  a  true  minister  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Before  the  close  of  the  meeting  he  was  or- 
dained as  a  minister  of  the  gospel  by  united  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of 
hands,  in  accordance  with  Acts  xiii.  1-3. 

Albright  continued  henceforth  to  labor  zealously  and  successfully  for 
the  salvation  of  souls,  amidst  great  hardships  and  difficulties  and  bitter 
persecutions,  until  1807,  when  the  first  regular  conference  was  held  in  the 
month  of  November,  by  which  he  was  unanimously  elected  bishop,  and 
also  requested  to  compile  articles  of  faith  and  a  discipline  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  then  so-called  "  Albright  people,"  but  he  soon  afterward  sank 
into  consumption,  and  died  happy  in  the  Lord,  in  the  spring  of  1808, — 
the  result  probably  of  extreme  hardships,  severe  labors,  and  over  exer- 
tion in  the  work.  Shortly  before  his  decease  he  expressed  to  one  of  his 
co-laborers  some  uncertainty  in  his  own  mind  whether  God  intended  the 
work  which  was  now  commenced  to  continue  as  a  separate  organization, 
but  said  that  if  Providence  designed  it  should  continue.  He  would  raise 
up  competent  men  who  would  carry  it  on ;  and  God  did  raise  such 
men  ! 

Several  years  thereafter  this  branch  of  the  Christian  church  adopted 
the  following  as  their  proper  church  name  :  "  Die  Evangelische  Ge- 
meinschaft  von  Nord  Amerika,"  which  was  translated  into  The  Evangel- 
ical Association  of  North  America.  The  work  has  since  grown  wonder- 
fully every  way,  even  beyond  all  expectation  and  belief.     This  denominar 


Cent.  XVII. -XIX.]  ROBERT  DONNELL.  661 

tion  now  numbers  nineteen  annual  conferences,  about  one  thousand  itiner- 
ant preachers,  and  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  members.  It  has  spread 
over  many  States  of  the  Union,  into  Canada  and  into  Europe,  and  has  also 
missionaries  in  Japan.  All  this,  together  with  an  exceedingly  prosper- 
ous book  establishment  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  an  orphan  institution  at  Flat 
Rock,  Ohio,  the  Northwestern  College,  and  a  Biblical  Institute  at  Naper- 
ville,  Illinois,  a  well-organized  missionary  society,  a  Sunday-school  and 
tract  union,  etc.,  and  above  all  the  assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  gives  a 
promising  prospect  for  the  future. 

The  labors  of  the  Evangelical  Association  are  now  conducted  in  both 
the  German  and  the  English  language. 

From  the  foregoing  paragraphs  it  is  already  evident  that  this  de- 
nomination is  Methodistic  in  both  doctrine  and  church  polity.  However, 
in  the  latter  respect  some  important  variations  exist  which  some  very 
sensible  men  have  regarded  as  improvements.  The  bishops  are  elected 
every  four  years  by  general  conference  ;  the  presiding  elders,  likewise, 
every  four  years  by  the  annual  conferences.  The  bishops  have  no  trans- 
ferring power,  and  the  presiding  elders,  who  are  practically  bishops  on 
a  smaller  scale,  are  the  assistants  in  stationing  the  preachers.  To  the 
office  of  bishop  is,  however,  attached  a  high  ideal.  He  must  excel  every 
way,  —  li^e  holier,  work  more,  and  preach  better  than  other  preachers, 
and  be  a  pattern  to  all. 

In  conclusion,  we  add  a  brief  personal  description  of  Jacob  Albright,  by 
whom  God  pleased  to  bring  about  such  a  work  as  this.  He  was  nearly 
six  feet  high,  had  smooth  black  hair,  a  high  clear  forehead,  small,  deeply 
set,  piercing  eyes,  aquiline  nose,  mouth  and  chin  well  proportioned,  a 
symmetrical  form,  a  white  complexion,  the  sanguine  and  choleric  tem- 
peraments well  combined.  Hence  he  was  a  beautiful  man,  graceful  in  his 
movements,  cheerful  and  yet  determined,  and  altogether  adapted  to  make 
a  favorable  impression.  When  he  preached,  from  a  heart  filled  with  the 
love  of  God,  people  hung  upon  his  words,  and  were  overwhelmed  by  the 
power  and  attractions  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  those  whom 
he  led  to  the  Saviour  loved  him  as  their  spiritual  father.  He  was,  in- 
deed, "  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith."  —  R.  Y. 


LIFE  XVII.     ROBERT   DONNELL. 

A.  D.  1784-A.  D.  1853.       CUMBERLAND    PRESBYTERIAN,  AMERICA. 

What  is  called  the  great  southwestern  revival  of  1800  commenced  in 
1797  under  the  ministrations  of  the  Rev.  James  MacGready.  MacGready 
was  educated  at  Canonsburgh,  in  Pennsylvania,  under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  MacMillan.    Having  finished  his  academical  education  he  also  studied 


662  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

theology  with  Dr.  MacMillan.  The  Presbyterian  ministers  who  coojjer- 
ated  with  MacGready  in  the  revival  were  also  regularly  educated  men, 
but  their  number  was  small.  The  work  soon  extended  itself  over  South- 
western Kentucky,  and  what  was  then  called  the  Cumberland  country, 
which  lay  adjacent.  Congregations  were  multiplied,  and  calls  became  so 
numerous  for  the  preaching  of  the  Word  and  for  the  ordinances  of  the 
gospel,  that  it  was  soon  found  impossible  to  supply  the  demand. 

In  their  exigency  the  revival  preachers  —  as  they  were  called  —  were 
advised  to  select  out  promising  men  from  among  the  subjects  of  the 
revival,  or  others,  and  encourage  them  to  prepare  for  the  ministry,  al- 
though they  might  not  have,  and  might  not  be  able  to  acquire,  the  quali- 
fications customary  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  a  preparation  for  that 
work.  At  fu'st  three  were  selected  and  recommended  to  the  presbytery. 
With  some  difficulty  they  obtained  licensure,  and  at  length  ordination ; 
still  the  number  was  not  sufficient  for  the  increasing  demand.  Congrega- 
tions were  multiplying  a  great  deal  more  rapidly  than  the  laborers.  Oth- 
ers were  called  out  to  meet  the  growing  want.  Amongst  these  was  the 
subject  of  this  present  story. 

Robert  Donnell  was  the  son  of  William  and  Mary  Bell  Donnell,  and 
was  born  in  Guilford  County,  North  Carolina,  in  April,  1784.  William 
Donnell,  the  father,  was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  partici- 
pated in  the  battle  at  Guilford  Court  House,  in  1781.  The  Donnell 
family  seem  to  have  been  originally  Seceders  (as  a  part  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  body  were  once  called),  but  to  have  joined  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  some  time  previous  to  1784,  as  Dr.  Caldwell  is  represented 
as  having  baptized  their  son,  Robert,  in  his  infancy. 

In  October,  1789,  William  Donnell  started  with  his  family  for  the 
Cumberland  country,  and  made  his  final  settlement  in  Wilson  County, 
Tennessee,  about  eight  miles  from  what  is  now  Lebanon.  Here  Robert 
Donnell  grew  up  to  manhood.  In  the  manuscript  which  is  one  of  my 
guides  in  this  story,  it  is  stated  that  the  whole  of  his  school  education 
His  school  life  Consisted  of  what  he  acquired  in  nine  months,  and  that  he 
of  nine  mouths,  acquired  this  before  he  was  thirteen  years  old.  The  ac- 
count is  not  improbable,  owing  to  the  condition  of  the  coimtry  at  that 
time.  Flavel's  "  Husbandry  Spiritualized,"  his  father's  Bible,  and  Rus- 
sell's "  Seven  Sermons "  were  his  text-books  in  learning  to  read,  and 
these  were  carried  on  pack-saddles  over  the  mountains  when  the  family 
came  to  Tennessee. 

In  1800,  when  he  was  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  his  age,  Mr.  DonneU 
professed  religion.  His  own  account  of  his  religious  experience,  after- 
wards narrated  to  his  friends,  was  substantially  the  following :  "  I  had 
been,"  said  he,  "  for  some  time  in  great  distress  of  soul  on  account  of 
my  sins,  and  after  having  spent  several  hours,  late  one  afternoon,  in  the 
secret  grove,  seeking  rest  and  finding  none,  I  returned  to  my  mother's 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  ROBERT  DONNELL.  663 

house ;  and  just  as  I  was  setting  my  feet  on  the  threshold  I  was  enabled 
to  put  the  rope  around  my  own  neck,  to  prostrate  myself  before  the 
cross  divested  of  all  self-dependence,  and  to  rely  alone  upon  the  merits 
of  Jesus  Christ."  This  account  is  characteristic.  He  soon  became  an 
efficient  helper  in  holding  prayer-meetings,  and  in  otherwise  promoting 
the  interests  of  religion  in  his  neighborhood.  He  would  often  exhort  his 
friends  and  neighbors,  "  with  melting  heart  and  streaming  eyes,  to  flee 
the  wrath  to  come." 

At  what  time  his  thoughts  began  to  be  directed  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry  we  do  not  know.  Such  thoughts,  however,  would  be  a  natiu-al 
outgrowth  of  the  feelings  and  exercises  which  have  been  mentioned. 
We  may  judge,  therefore,  that  it  was  not  long  after  his  profession  of  re- 
ligion, that  the  necessities  of  the  times  began  to  press  themselves  upon 
him,  and  he  began  to  consider  the  question  seriously  of  offering  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry. 

The  Cumberland  Presbytery,  which  included  the  Cumberland  country, 
had  been  dissolved,  but  the  informal  "  council  "  had  taken  its  place.  As 
soon  as  he  heard  of  the  formation  of  the  council,  he  resolved  to  put 
himself  under  its  care  with  a  view  to  the  sacred  office,  and  stand  or  fall 
with  the  revival  party.  It  will  be  understood  that  there  was  great  con- 
fusion in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  West  during  these  times,  and 
older  men  hardly  knew  how  to  direct  then*  steps.  This  young  man,  how- 
ever, was  in  earnest,  and  he  looked  beyond  himself  and  the  wisdom  of 
men,  for  guidance.  The  following  is  his  own  account  of  the  final  strug- 
gle of  his  mind  upon  the  question  of  duty.  It  occurred  at  a  camp-meet- 
ing near  Murfreesboro,  Tennessee.  He  says,  "  While  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  being  administered,  I  looked  over  the  large  con- 
gregation, thought  of  the  scarcity  of  preachers,  the  distracted  state  of  the 
church,  and  became  so  affected  that  I  retired  to  the  woods  to  i^ray,  and 
there  remained  all  night.  The  burden  of  my  prayer  was,  '  Lord,  what 
vrilt  Thou  have  me  to  do  ?  '  I  thought  I  saw  the  path  of  duty  jjlainly 
marked  before  me,  and  resolved  to  pursue  it." 

Accordingly  he  presented  himself  before  the  council  in  1806,  and 
was  received,  as  far  as  they  felt  authorized  to  receive  him. 

T       1     .      •    f  1  •  1  TT  cii  1  Joins  the  new 

in  theu-  miormal  capacity  they  did  not  leel  themselves  at  Presbyterian 
liberty  to  transact  presbyterial  business.  He  was  encour-  '^°^®™®''  • 
aged,  however,  to  exercise  his  gifts  as  an  exhorter  and  catechist.  With 
this  authority  he  entered  upon  his  work,  and  soon  became  practically  and 
really  an  efficient  preacher,  although  he  had  received  no  formal  license. 
He  was  at  first  directed  to  occupy  a  portion  of  the  country  lying  between 
the  Ohio  and  Cumberland  rivers,  and  labor  as  he  could  for  the  promo- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  It  required  three  months  to  go  round 
his  circuit.  Of  course  open  houses,  hard  beds,  and  rough  fare  otherwise 
often  awaited  him,  together  with  trials  perhaps  still  more  severe.     But 


664  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Periob  V. 

the  account  is  that  "  God  in  a  very  remarkable  manner  crowned  his  la- 
bors with  success." 

In  1809  he  penetrated  into  Northern  Alabama,  and  commenced  the 
work  of  collecting  and,  as  far  as  he  felt  himself  authorized,  of  organizing 
congregations  in  what  was  then  a  new  but  rapidly  opening  country.  He 
was  in  this  country  when  he  received  intelligence  of  the  reorganization 
of  the  Cumberland  Presbytery  in  1810.  This  presbytery,  it  may  be 
remarked  by  the  way,  thus  organized  as  an  independent  presbytery,  be- 
came the  nucleus  of  what  has  grown  into  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church.  The  following  is  his  own  account  of  his  labors,  hopes,  and 
fears : — 

"  I  was  traveling,"  says  he,  "  in  Alabama  Territory,  when  I  heard  of 
the  constitution  of  the  Cumberland  Presbytery  by  Messrs.  McAdoo, 
Ewing,  and  King.  If  I  ever  was  free  from  sectarian  feelings,  it  was  at 
that  period.  I  often  thought  within  myself,  For  what  am  I  laboring  ? 
I  am  connected  with  no  church,  and  know  not  that  I  ever  shall  be. 
For  what,  then,  do  I  labor  if  I  cannot  build  up  a  church  ?  My  answer 
to  myself  was,  Only  for  the  glory  of  Gk)d,  and  the  salvation  of  precious 
souls.  But  what  will  become  of  the  few  so  strongly  united  in  the  bonds 
of  love  ?  This  could  only  be  settled  by  the  great  Head  of  the  church. 
Of  Him  I  often  sought  an  answer,  and  I  am  persuaded  He  did  answer ; 
as  for  some  time  before  the  presbytery  was  constituted,  I  became  quite 
calm  on  the  subject,  under  a  firm  persuasion  that  the  Lord  would  open 
a  way  for  us.  I  was  in  this  frame  when  the  intelligence  reached  me 
which  caused  me  to  feel  truly  thankful  to  God  who  had  thus  opened  a 
way  for  us,  a  feeble  handful  of  his  followers,  to  become  more  exten- 
sively useful."  ^ 

Donnell  was  licensed  to  preach  at  the  Big  Spring  meeting-house,  in 
Wilson  County,  Tennessee,  in  1811.     He  had  been  really 

Formally  iden-  •"  '  .     "l 

tified  with  the      preaching,  howcvcr,  siucc   1806,  and  had  already  acquired 
Presbyterian        some  eminence.     The  following  year  he  was  set  apart  to 
the  full  work  of  the  ministry  with  the  usual  formalities, 
at  the  Three  Forks  of  Duck  River. 

On  the  17th  of  March,  1818,  he  was  married  to  an  estimable  lady  of 
Jackson  County,  Tennessee.  It  was  a  marriage  in  the  Lord.  Previous 
to  his  marriage  Donnell,  as  we  have  seen,  labored  chiefly  as  an  itiner- 
ant minister.  He  traveled  extensively,  especially  throughout  the  south- 
ern portion  of  his  church.  It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  the  labors  of 
no  man  in  any  of  the  denominations  were  more  signally  blessed.  He 
possessed  vigorous  health,  a  fine  constitution,  and  in  all  his  labors  a  feel- 
ing was  manifested  that  he  belonged  to  God.  After  his  marriage  he 
settled  in  Alabama,  and  became  nominally  a  farmer.  It  was  his  family, 
however,  that  was  settled ;  he  himself  still  contiaued  the  most  active  and 
1  Life  and  Times  of  Finis  Ewing. 


Cext.  XVII.-XIX.]  ROBERT  DONNELL.  665 

laborious  minister  in  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church.  Many  con- 
gregations were  collected  through  his  agency  in  Tennessee  and  Alabama. 
A  number  of  them  are  still  flourishing,  yielding  fruit  from  the  precious 
seed  sown  by  his  ministry. 

The  General  Assembly  of  1831,  in  conformity  with  several  petitions 
from  that  country,  appointed  five  missionaries  to  Western  Pennsylvania, 
of  whom  Donnell  was  one.  Their  mission  was  eminently  successful, 
his  labors  with  those  of  the  others  being  greatly  blessed. 

Having  lost  his  wife  in  1828,  he  was  married  a  second  time,  to  Miss 
Clara  M.  Lindley,  in  1832.  Miss  Lindley  was  the  daughter  of  Rev. 
Jacob  Lindley  of  Pennsylvania.  She  had  been  engaged  for  some  years 
as  an  instructress  in  the  South. 

Sometime  about  1830,  he  commenced  a  series  of  efforts  in  the  city  of 
Nashville.     The  result  was  the  introduction  of  Cumberland   -^^^^^^  ^0^^ 
Presbyterianism  into  that  city.     As  the  fruits  of  seed  thus   churches. 
sown  are  two  congregations,  one  in  the  city  proper,  the  other  in  Edge- 
field,    The  former  is  one  of  the  largest  and  best  in  the  city ;  the  other 
is  promising. 

In  1845  he  went  to  Memphis  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  con- 
gregation and  aiding  in  building  a  house  of  worship.  After  spending 
some  months  there,  and  accomplishing  the  object  of  his  visit,  he  returned 
home,  and  in  a  short  time  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  congrega- 
tion of  Lebanon,  Tennessee.  He  remained  in  Lebanon  until  February, 
1849,  when  he  moved  to  Athens,  Alabama,  which  became,  as  he  ex- 
pected, his  last  earthly  home.  He  had  now  passed  half  through  the 
seventh  decade  of  his  life,  a  period  when  serious  men  begin  to  think  of 
setting  their  house  in  order.  He  built  a  mansion,  comfortable  rather 
than  otherwise,  as  a  home  for  his  family,  and  from  tliis  mansion  he  en- 
tered into  his  rest. 

His  last  years  were  spent  mostly  in  quietude.  He  preached  occasion- 
ally when  he  was  able.  On  the  third  Sabbath  in  November,  1853,  he 
officiated  at  the  funeral  of  three  aged  Christians  a  few  miles  from  his 
home.  His  text  on  the  occasion  was,  "  These  all  died  in  faith."  It  was 
his  last  sermon.  He  lingered,  however,  to  the  24th  of  May,  1854, 
when  he  died.  Thus  he  came  to  his  grave  in  a  "  good  old  age,"  like  a 
shock  of  corn  gathered  in  its  season.  His  death  occurred  in  his  seventy- 
second  year. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  the  oldest  vice-president  of  the 
American  Tract  Society.  He  had  been  for  years  a  devoted  friend  of 
the  American  Bible  Society,  and  a  promoter  of  its  interests.  In  favor 
of  temperance  he  was  outspoken,  and  a  temperance  man  from  principle 
long  before  there  were  temperance  societies. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Cumberland  Synod  in  1825,  when  the  de- 
cisive step  was  taken  towards  the  establishment  of  Cumberland  College, 


666  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

and  gave  his  unqualified  support  to  the  institution  while  there  were 
hopes  of  its  success,  and  in  1842  was  a  member  of  the  commission 
appointed  for  the  location  of  Cumberland  University.  Of  the  latter 
institution  he  continued  a  steadfast  friend  and  supporter  through  his 
remaining  life. 

An  authority  says,  "  He  was  perhaps  instrumental  in  the  conversion  of 
as  many  sinners,  organized  as  many  congregations,  assisted  in  building 
as  many  houses  of  worship,  and  brought  as  many  young  men  into  the 
ministry,  as  any  contemporary  minister  of  his  own  or  any  other  denom- 
ination of  Christians."     This  is,  no  doubt,  a  faithful  testimony. 

Donnell  preached  the  opening  sermon  at  the  meeting  of  the  first  gen- 
eral assembly  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church.  The  meeting 
was  held  at  Princeton,  Kentucky,  in  1829.  The  subject  was  "Solomon's 
choice  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  that  he  might  be  able  to  judge  the 
people  of  God,  and  go  in  and  out  before  them  in  a  becoming  manner." 
The  sermon  was  characteristic. 

From  the  time  of  Donnell's  maturity  in  the  ministry,  he  was  regarded 
Leader  of  his  ^^  ^^^  leader  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  church  to  which 
people.  }jg  belonged.     No  other  man  contributed  so  much  towards 

directing  its  theological  inquiries  or  its  practical  policy.  For  thirty  years 
he  was  the  highest  human  authority  in  these  matters.  He  was  a  great 
natural  man.  Furthermore,  by  extraordinary  application  and  industry 
in  his  early  ministry,  he  had  made  himself  a  respectable  scholar.  It  used 
to  be  said  that  he  carried  his  English  grammar  and  other  elementary 
books  in  his  saddle-bags  on  his  circuits,  and  studied  them  on  horseback 
between  his  appointments.  This  was  probably  true,  as  it  was  the  cus- 
tom of  those  days.  He  possessed  great  administrative  abilities,  and 
could  hardly  have  been  otherwise  than  a  leader.  At  the  same  time  it  is 
to  be  remarked  that  no  man  seemed  less  anxious  to  be  a  leader.  If  he 
was  ambitious,  the  world  never  knew  it. 

Personally,  he  was  a  man  to  be  observed  anywhere.  His  figure  was 
commanding.  He  was  something  over  six  feet  in  height ;  his  usual 
weight  in  later  life  was  about  two  hundred  and  twenty.  He  was  always 
neatly  dressed,  stood  erect  in  the  pulpit,  delivering  his  message  in  an 
imusually  solemn  and  impressive  manner.  He  never  descended  to  what 
are  called  the  arts  of  elocution.  Nature  Kkd  done  enough  for  him  in 
that  respect.  His  voice  was  like  the  voice  of  a  trumpet ;  he  never  lacked 
words,  and  notwithstanding  the-  defects  of  his  early  education,  his  words 
were  always  well  selected.  His  thoughts  were  very  clear,  and  his 
method  of  utterance  unusually  distinct.  No  man  needed  to  misunder- 
stand him.  Above  all,  there  were  a  spirituality  and  an  unction  in  his 
pulpit  ministrations  which  subdued,  while  his  mind  and  manner  led. 
He  seemed  often  to  be  absolutely  overwhelming.  He  was  not  always  so, 
it  is  true,  but  he  was  always  interesting.     Donnell  belonged  to  a  race  of 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ROBERT  DONNELL.  667 

men  in  the  Southwest  which  has  passed  away.  We  may  not  expect  to 
see  their  like  again. 

A  few  brief  personal  recollections  will  close  this  sketch.  I  saw  Rob- 
ert Donnell  for  the  first  time  in  my  early  boyhood.  He  called  at  my 
grandfather's,  with  whom  I  then  lived.  He  was  accompanied  by  his 
mother,  an  aged  lady  of  serious  and  quiet  appearance.  But  one  thing 
occurred  in  this  visit  which  made  any  impression  upon  my  mind.  My 
grandfather  had  a  large  family  Bible  which  he  had  carried  over  the 
mountains  from  Virginia  to  this  country.  This,  with  the  hymn-book, 
Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  "Travels  of  True  Godliness,"  made  up  the 
principal  part  of  his  library.  Donnell,  in  walking  over  the  house,  found 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  made  some  jocular  remark  about  it.  The 
controversy  was  then  raging  which  gave  rise  to  the  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterian Church.  The  old  gentleman  relished  a  joke,  and  retorted  in  a 
very  pithy  one.  I  shall  never  forget  his  words,  but  they  were  too  anti- 
quated for  such  a  story  as  this. 

I  saw  him  no  more  until  the  fall  of  1817.  He  had  then  become  one 
of  the  most  popular  preachers  in  the  church.  The  occasion  was  a  camp- 
meeting  at  the  Beech  church  in  Sumner  County,  Tennessee.  He  de- 
livered a  sermon  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Rev.  "William  McGee,  one 
of  the  old  revival  ministers  who  had  given  in  his  adhesion  to  the  new 
organization.  Mr.  McGee  had  once  been  the  pastor  of  the  Beech  con- 
gregation. It  was  an  exceedingly  tender  occasion.  The  preacher  him- 
self wept  freely,  and  but  few  eyes  were  dry  in  the  great  congregation. 
I  was  then  a  very  young  Christian. 

In  1820,  he  preached  at  the  same  Beech  camp-ground.  It  was  late 
in  October,  and  the  weather  was  unusually  cold  for  the  season.  He  was 
then  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  was  certainly  a  noble  specimen  of  human- 
ity. He  preached  in  the  open  air  ;  there  was  no  shelter,  and  snow  was 
falling  during  most  of  the  time  of  the  sermon.  But  the  large  concourse 
of  jjeople  kept  their  places,  and  heard  with  unflagging  attention,  and  ap- 
parently with  deep  interest.  The  text  was,  "  That  as  sin  hath  reigned 
unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eter- 
nal life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  I  had  been  licensed  to  preach  but 
a  few  days  before,  and  was  perhaps  in  a  good  frame  of  mind  for  hearing. 
It  is  certain  that  I  never  heard  a  sermon  with  more  intellectual  interest. 
"  Sin  hath  reigned  unto  death  "  in  throwing  darkness  into  the  under- 
standing, in  perverting  the  judgment,  in  controlling  the  will,  in  impair- 
ing the  memory,  in  depraving  the  affections,  in  subjecting  the  body  to 
the  power  of  disease  and  death.  Grace  reigns  in  enlightening  the  un- 
derstanding, in  correcting  the  errors  of  the  judgment,  in  persuading  and 
enabling  the  will,  in  rendering  the  memory  more  tenacious  of  what  is 
good,  in  renewing  the  affections,  and,  finally,  in  restoring  the  body  to 
life  and  immortality  in  the  resurrection  of  the  just.  This  is  an  outline 
of  the  sermon  wliich  was  delivered  that  cold  day. 


668  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

In  1823  the  Cumberland  Synod  met  at  Russellville,  Kentucky.  At 
the  close  of  the  sessions  a  camp-meeting  was  held  at  a  place  about  four 
miles  from  town.  Donnell  preached  on  Saturday  evening.  His  text 
was,  "  I  speak  as  unto  wise  men  ;  judge  ye  what  I  say."  Of  course, 
such  a  text  was  chosen  because  it  afforded  any  degree  of  latitude.  The 
sermon  consisted  of  an  exposition  and  vindication  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
youthful  church.  On  one  topic  he  gave  a  direction  to  my  own  thoughts 
which  they  have  still  kept.  I  had  entertained  a  confused  notion  that 
regeneration  was  a  sort  of  physical  change.  The  sermon  of  that  even- 
ing relieved  my  mind  on  that  subject.  It  seems  to  me  now  that  he  was 
very  distinct  and  satisfactory,  and  the  wonder  is  that  with  the  means  of 
information  which  Cumberland  Presbyterians  then  had,  he  could  have 
been  so  much  so.  The  next  day  he  preached  a  funeral  sermon.  It  was 
a  massive  discourse. 

It  has  been  stated  already  that  he  preached  the  opening  sermon  of  the 
first  general  assembly.  In  1843  he  delivered  a  sermon  at  the  general 
assembly  at  Owensboro,  Kentucky,  upon  the  life,  character,  and  death 
of  the  Rev.  Samuel  King,  one  of  the  three  who  constituted  the  inde- 
pendent Cumberland  Presbytery  in  1810.  In  his  latter  years  he  showed 
in  his  efforts  in  the  pulpit  something  of  the  effects  of  age.  He  was  al- 
ways heard,  however,  with  interest.  He  continued  to  preach,  too,  while 
he  had  physical  strength  for  his  work.  Both  nature  and  grace  had 
fitted  him  for  the  pulpit.  It  was  his  thi-one.  He  loved  its  labors,  and 
would  have  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  preachers  in  any  Christian  com- 
munion. —  R.  B. 


LIFE  XVIIL    ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL. 

A.    D.    1788-A.   D.    1876.      DISCIPLES,  —  AMERICA. 

Alexander  Campbell  was  born  in  the  county  of  Antrim,  Ireland, 
September  12,  1788,  in  sight  of  Shane's  Castle,  the  ancient  ruin  of  which 
still  stands  on  the  northern  shore  of  Lough  Neagh.  On  his  mother's 
side  he  was  descended  from  the  French  Huguenots,  and  on  his  father's 
from  ancestors  originally  from  the  west  of  Scotland,  and  claiming  bo,th 
clanship  and  kinsliip  with  the  race  Dearmid  —  the  Campbells  of  Argyle- 
shire.  His  father  received  both  his  academical  and  liis  theological  edu- 
cation at  the  University  of  Glasgow,  —  the  latter  in  the  school  of  the 
anti-burgher  Seceders,  under  Dr.  Archibald  Bruce,  of  Whitburn.  Both 
father  and  mother  were  eminent  for  piety  and  the  most  earnest  devotion 
to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  but  few  sons  ever  enjoyed  finer  ad- 
vantages in  literary  instruction  and  religious  training  than  they  diligently 
labored  to  afford  their  son  Alexander.      He  was,  indeed,  from  a  very 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     ALEXANDER   CAMPBELL.  669 

early  age,  marked  by  rare  and  remarkable  gifts  of  body  and  mind,  and  it 
required  a  high  order  of  wisdom  in  discipline  and  of  skill  in  instruction 
to  give  proper  direction  and  guidance  to  his  expanding  powers.  Fond  of 
all  manner  of  sport,  by  flood  and  field,  he  was  nevertheless  constantly 
and  firmly  held  to  his  studies,  and  carefully  cultured  in  all  that  could 
draw  out  and  expand  his  powers,  and  fit  him  for  the  high  walks  in  intel- 
lectual pursuits  to  which  nature  so  evidently  destiaed  him. 

Speaking  himself  of  his  father  he  says  :  "  His  family  training  and  dis- 
cipline were  peculiarly  didactic,  Biblical,  and  strict The  Bible  was, 

during  the  minority  of  his  family,  a  daily  study  and  a  daily  recitation. 
....  I  can  but  gratefully  add  that  to  my  mother  as  well  as  to  my  father 
I  am  indebted  for  having  memorized  in  early  life  almost  all  the  writings 
of  King  Solomon,  his  Proverbs,  his  Ecclesiastes,  and  many  of  the  Psalms 
of  his  father,  David.  They  have  not  only  been  written  on  the  tablet  of 
my  memory,  but  incorporated  with  my  modes  of  thinking  and  speaking." 
With  such  prejjaration  of  discipline  as  this  was  the  powerful  nature  of 
Alexander  Campbell  nurtured  through  its  period  of  formation.  Not, 
however,  without  strong  tendencies  of  resistance  and  counter-struggling, 
which  under  other  masters,  and  a  less  divine  and  devoted  guidance,  might 
have  made  the  "  reformer  of  Bethany  "  only  a  great  barrister,  or  an  Irish 
agitator,  —  the  peer  of  O'Connell  in  the  House  of  Commons,  or  a  patriot 
statesman,  by  the  side  of  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun,  in  American  pol- 
itics. For  nature  had  given  him  the  elements  of  greatness,  and  fashioned 
him  for  a  ruler  and  leader  of  men. 

From  his  father's  academy  at  Rich  Hill,  where  he  had  labored  both  as 
pupU  and  as  teacher,  he  passed  to  the  University  of  Glasgow,  gj^jigg  j^  g^^^. 
Professors  Young  and  Jardine  were  his  favorites  in  the  de-  i^"''- 
partments  of  philosophy  and  logic  and  belles-lettres,  —  and  Dr.  Ure's 
lectures  and  experiments  in  the  Anderson  Institute,  just  then  founded, 
introduced  him  to  the  very  fountain-head  of  modern  physics.  For  seven- 
teen hours  per  day  he  bent  his  vigorous  powers  to  his  tasks.  In  after 
years,  while  president  of  Bethany  College,  he  was  fond  of  telling  his  stu- 
dents that  though  his  name  came  among  the  first  on  the  alphabetical  class 
rolls,  he  never  failed  to  return  his  "  adsum  "  to  the  call  of  the  professor. 
Outside  of  the  university  he  formed  "  a  very  happy  acquaintance  with  Dr. 
Greville  Ewing,  and  Dr.  Wardlaw,  then  prominent  actors  among  the  Scotch 
Independents,  as  well  as  with  Dr.  Moultre,  Dr.  Mitchell,  and  others  of 
the  Presbyterian  faith."  From  such  influences  as  these  he  received  im- 
pressions that  gave  both  impulse  and  direction  to  his  after  life,  and  had 
much  to  do,  doubtless,  in  preparing  him  for  his  extraordinary  career. 

In  1809  he  migrated  to  the  United  States,  and  hastened  to  join  his 
father,  Thomas  Campbell,  who  had  preceded  him,  and  was  already  settled 
at  Washington,  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  whither  he  had  been  sent  by 
the  Associate  Synod  of  North  America  as  a  Seceder  minister,  under 


670  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

the  Presbytery  of  Chartiers.  He  found  his  father  already  engaged  in 
an  attempted  "  reformation,"  —  and  scarcely  recognized  on  terms  of  ec- 
clesiastic fellowship  by  the  Seceders,  because  of  his  persistency  in  reject- 
ing "  all  human  authority  in  matters  of  religion,"  and  his  "  plea  for  union 
on  the  simple  basis  of  the  Scriptures."  The  princijile  and  the  object  of 
this  movement  at  once  commended  it  to  the  judgment  and  religious  con- 
victions of  Alexander  Campbell.  It  was  in  harmony  with  the  deepest 
convictions  of  his  mind  as  to  the  divine  origin  of  all  that  is  binding  on 
the  human  conscience  in  matters  of  faith  and  religion,  and  his  strong, 
positive  intellect  and  resolute  will  accepted  its  fundamental  proposition, 
with  the  absoluteness  of  an  axiom.  But  there  was  nothing  in  the  scheme 
to  inspire  ambition,  or  to  tempt  selfishness.  Seemingly,  it  was  a  barren 
and  impractical  dream. 

They  were  strangei-s  in  a  new  world,  without  position  or  wealth.  The 
country  was  yet  almost  a  wilderness,  and  they  were  removed  from  the 
busy  centres  of  social,  political,  and  ecclesiastical  influence.  What  but 
isolation  and  proscription  could  a  secession  like  this  promise  to  the  act- 
ors ?  Evidently,  for  a  young  and  gifted  pioneer,  there  was  not  a  ray  of 
promise  of  either  honor  or  wealth  on  the  side  of  dissent  and  secession. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  the  way  was  open  and  inviting.  Pittsburgh,  not 
far  off,  was  already  a  growing  and  busy  city  of  four  or  five  thousand  in- 
habitants, and  soon  tempting  offers  came  to  Alexander  Campbell  to  em- 
ploy his  fine  education  in  the  conduct  of  a  literary  and  classical  acad- 
emy in  that  city.  A  thousand  dollars  was  at  that  time  a  tempting  salary 
to  a  young  man  just  starting  in  life,  and  especially  to  one  who  had  been 
accustomed  in  Ireland  to  see  old  and  gifted  Seceder  ministers  paid  only 
from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  year. 
Besides,  there  was  the  open  way  to  large  circles  of  friendly  influence  and 
avenues  of  honor  and  promotion.  But  his  heart  had  already  passed 
through  an  experience  that  prepared  it  to  choose  ",  the  better  part,"  and 
the  decision  was  promptly  and  firmly  made. 

Speaking  of  himself  when  seventeen  years  old,  he  says  :  "  From 
Experience  of  ^^^  ^^^^  '^^^  ^  could  read  the  Scriptures,  I  became  con- 
reiigion.  vinccd  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God.     I  was  also  fully 

persuaded  that  I  was  a  sinner,  and  must  obtain  pardon  through  the  merits 
of  Christ,  or  be  forever  lost.  This  caused  me  great  distress  of  soul,  and 
I  had  much  exercise  of  mind  under  the  awakenings  of  a  guilty  con- 
science. Finally,  after  many  stragglings,  I  was  enabled  to  put  my  trust 
in  the  Saviour,  and  to  feel  my  reliance  on  Him  as  the  only  Saviour  of  sin- 
ners. From  the  moment  I  was  able  to  feel  this  reliance  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  I  obtained  and  enjoyed  peace  of  mind.  It  never  entered 
my  heart  to  investigate  the  subject  of  baptism  or  the  doctrines  of  the 
creed."  Tliis  was  the  beginning  of  his  public  profession  of  religion,  as* 
a  communicant  with  the  Seceders. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     ALEXANDER   CAMPBELL.  671 

Later,  when  sailing  out  of  Lough  Foyle  with  his  father's  family  for 
America,  the  vessel  was  caught  in  a  storm  and  di'iven  to  pieces  on  the 
reefs  of  the  island  of  Islay.  "  Sitting  on  the  stump  of  a  broken  mast, 
....  and  musing  upon  the  vanity  of  the  aims  and  ambitions  of  human 
life,  he  thought  of  his  father's  noble  example,  devoted  to  God  and  the 
salvation  of  his  fellow-beings,  and  in  that  solemn  hour  resolved  that,  if 
saved  from  the  present  peril,  he  would  give  his  life  to  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel."  And  still  again,  when  his  voyage  was  renewed,  and  he  was 
brought  into  a  like  peril,  this  sacred  vow  of  self -consecration  was  re- 
peated. It  was  a  covenant  which,  calm  amid  the  fury  of  the  elements, 
his  soul  had  made  with  his  Maker  and  Redeemer,  and  the  new  situation, 
in  the  midst  of  safety  and  the  brightening  hopes  of  worldly  advantage, 
could  not  temjst  him  to  break  it.  The  crisis  of  his  life  seemed  to  have 
been  prepared  for  him  by  his  Heavenly  Parent,  and  he  did  not  hesitate 
as  to  his  choice. 

Under  his  father's  gaiidance,  therefore,  he  gave  himself  industriously 
to  special  preparation  for  his  chosen  work,  and  on  the  15th  of  July, 
1810,  he  preached  his  first  sermon.  It  was  in  one  of  nature's  stately 
groves,  rudely  seated  for  the  purpose,  and  to  an  audience  naturally  curi- 
ous to  hear  the  "  young  scholar  from  Glasgow."  Even  his  critical  father 
pronounced  it  "  good,"  and  calls  from  many  quarters  were  soon  made  to 
hear  the  "  young  man  who  was  a  better  preacher  than  his  father,"  so  that 
it  is  reported  that  during  the  remaining  six  months  of  that  year  he  de- 
livered one  hundred  and  six  sermons  ;  some  in  private  houses,  some  in 
barns,  a  few  in  churches,  but  the  greater  number  in  selected  groves  of 
the  native  forest.  His  ministry  soon  took  a  wider  range,  and  he  made 
missionary  tours  into  the  neighboring  parts  of  Virginia  and  Ohio, 
preaching  wherever  he  could  find  an  audience :  to  individuals  of  prom- 
inence, —  like  Philip  to  the  eunuch,  —  to  fireside  groups,  in  court-houses, 
and  occasionally  in  such  pulpits  as  were  opened  to  him,  — "  to  mixed 
audiences  of  Presbyterians,  Unionists,  Methodists,"  and  others. 

So  far,  his  father's  movement  for  a  larger  union  of  Christians  had  only 
resulted  in  a  complete  isolation  of  himself  and  his  associates  from  the 
fellowship  of  all  existing  ecclesiastical  organizations.     This  was  contrary 
to  his  hopes  and  expectations.     "  He  would  have  liked,"  as  D'Aubigne 
says  of  Calvin,  "  to  see  all  the  churches  transformed,  rather  than  set 
themselves  apart  and  form  a  new  one."     But  this  could  not  be.     An 
earnest  overture  had  been  made  to  the  Presbyterian  synod  of  Pittsburgh, 
but  it  was  distinctly  refused.     Hitherto,  they  had  cooperated  under  the 
name  of  "  The  Christian  Association,"  but  laid  no  claim  to  independent 
church  organization ;  but  now  no  other  course  seemed  left 
them,  and  "  The  Christian  Association  "  was  organized  into    pies'  church.'' 
the  "Brush  Run  Church,"  with  Thomas  Campbell  as  its 
elder,  several  deacons,  and  Alexander  Campbell  as  its  licensed  preacher. 


672  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

His  preaching,  during  these  years,  was  in  no  characteristic  sense  po- 
lemic. Still,  it  was  a  firm,  practical  protest  against  much  that  was  dear  to 
the  existing  parties,  in  that  it  refused  to  be  subjected  to  their  control. 
"  Am  I  asked,"  said  he,  "  why  I  am  not  a  party  man,  —  why  I  do  not 
join  some  party  ?  I  ask  in  return.  Which  party  would  the  Apostle 
Paul  join  if  now  on  earth?  Or,  in  other  words,  which  party  would  re- 
ceive him?  I  dare  not  be  a  party  man.  (1.)  Because  Christ  has  forbid- 
den me (2.)  Because  no  party  will  receive  into  communion  all 

whom  God  would  receive  into  heaven (4.)  Because  all  parties 

oppose  reformation.  They  all  pray  for  it,  but  they  will  not  work  for  it. 
None  of  them  dare  return  to  the  original  standard." 

Having  adopted  the  principle  that  he  would  conform  his  religious  life 
in  all  things  strictly  to  the  precepts  and  precedents  of  the  sacred  Script- 
ures, it  was  not  long  till  he  was  led  to  challenge  the  authority  of  pjsdo- 
baptism.  The  question  indeed  came  to  him  in  a  i^ressing  practical  form, 
not  to  be  evaded.  In  1812  he  married  a  Miss  Brown,  who  with  her 
father's  family  was  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  ques- 
tion rose,  "  Shall  we  baptize  our  first-born  ?  "  This  led  to  further  ques- 
tions respecting  baptism.  The  discussion,  thus  begun,  was  engaged  in  by 
the  whole  of  the  Brush  Run  congregation,  and  the  result  was  that  in  a 
short  time  not  only  Alexander  Campbell  and  his  father  and  their  families, 
but  nearly  all  the  members  of  the  organization,  were  immersed.  Those 
who  did  not  follow  in  the  action  soon  withdrew  their  fellowship,  and  the 
Brush  Run  Church  became,  so  far  as  this  institution  could  character- 
ize it,  a  Baptist  church.  They  reserved,  however,  their  independent 
position  as  to  creeds  and  confessions  of  faith.  "  I  have  set  out,"  said 
Alexander  Campbell  to  the  Baptist  minister  whom  he  requested  to  im- 
merse him,  "  I  have  set  out  to  follow  the  Apostles  of  Christ  and  their 
master,  and  I  will  be  baptized  only  into  the  primitive  Christian  faith." 

Hitherto  he  had  preached  as  a  licentiate  of  the  Brush  Run  congrega- 
tion, and  now  the  question  of  his  "  ordination  "  was  raised,  and  this  like 
everything  else  was  brought  to  the  test  of  the  Scriptures.  "  Utterly  re- 
pudiating the  claim  of  apostolic  succession,  of  priestly  supremacy,  and  the 
communication  of  any  official  grace  by  superiors  to  inferiors,  or  that  the 
clergy  had  any  inherent  or  transmissible  power  in  them,  as  it  respects 
ordination,"  he  nevertheless  saw  that  it  was  a  clearly  established  apos- 
tolic custom,  and  accepted  it  as  a  solemn  and  Scriptural  mode  of  setting 
persons  apart,  and  of  committing  them,  when  chosen  by  the  church,  to 
the  discharge  of  official  diaties.  He  believed  himself  "called  to  the 
ministry  by  many  tokens  ^  of  the  divine  purpose  ; "  he  had  already,  by 
solemn  vows,  consecrated  himself  in  heart  to  the  work,  and  it  was  right 
and  Scriptural  that  he  should  be  formally  set  apart  by  "  ordination." 

1  In  an  entry  made  by  him  at  the  time,  he  states  twelve  separate  "  instances  of  divine 
power  which  he  considered  bound  him  under  special  obligations  to  devote  himself  to  this 
service  of  God." 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    ALEXANDER   CAMPBELL.  673 

According  to  his  light  was  his  obedience.  As  he  represented  it,  "  This 
band  of  reformers  had  engaged  themselves  to  be,  not  a  sect,  with  its 
truths  and  its  errors  equally  stereotyped  and  equally  immutable,  but  a 
party  of  progress,  as  learners  in  the  school  of  Christ."  Soon  they  were 
brought  into  a  j^rominence  that  excited  attention,  discussion,  controversy, 
and  bitter  opposition. 

For  a  number  of  years,  from  his  immersion  in  1812  to  his  debate  with 
McCalla  in  1823,  his  labors  in  the  ministry,  though  zealous  and  arduous, 
were  confined  to  the  limited  region  round  about  his  home  in  "West  Vir- 
ginia. He  managed  a  farm,  toiling  arduously  with  his  own  hands  ;  con- 
ducted the  Buffalo  Seminary,  which  he  established  in  his  own  house ; 
and  preached  whenever  and  wherever  he  could  get  an  audience,  without 
charges  on  any  one.  In  a  letter  written  to  an  uncle  in  Ireland  during 
this  period,  he  reveals  in  a  few  bold  strokes  his  views  of  the  country  and 
his  own  religious  status.  "  I  have  had,"  he  says,  "  my  horse  shod  by  a 
legislator,  my  horse  saddled,  my  boots  cleaned,  and  my  stirrup  held  by 
a  senator.  Here  is  no  nobility  but  virtue  ;  here  there  is  no  ascend- 
ency save  that  of  genius,  virtue,  and  knowledge.  A  farmer  here  is 
lord  of  the  soil,  and  the  most  independent  man  on  earth.  I  would  not 
exchange  the  honor  and  privilege  of  being  an  American  citizen  for  the 

position    of    your  king After  long  study  and   investigation  of 

books,  and  more  especially  the   sacred  Scriptures,  I  have,  through  clear 
convictions  of  truth  and  duty,  renounced  much  of  the  traditions  and  er- 
rors of  my  early  education.     I  am  now  an  Independent  in   ^jj^  account  of 
church  government ;  ....  of  the  faith  and  view  of  the   ^^  belief, 
gospel   exhibited  in  John  Walker's  seven  letters  to  Alexander  Knox,  and 

a  Baptist  as  respects  baptism What  I  am  in  religion,  I  am  from 

examination,  reflection,  and  conviction,  not  from  ipse  dixit,  tradition, 
or  human  authorities  ;  and  having  halted  and  faltered  and  stumbled,  I 
have  explored  every  inch  of  the  way  hitherto,  and  I  trust  through  grace 
'  I  am  what  I  am.'  Though  my  father  and  I  accord  in  sentiment,  neither 
of  us  is  a  dictator  or  an  imitator.  Neither  of  us  leads ;  neither  of  us 
follows." 

His  views  and  his  course  as  to  baptism  excited  very  general  inquiry  in 
the  sphere  of  his  influence,  but  both  he  and  his  father  had  hitherto  ear- 
nestly deprecated  the  thought  of  giving  their  investigations  a  controver- 
sial cast,  and  these  inquiries  were  mostly  restricted  to  the  private  circles 
of  fireside  examination  of  the  Scriptures.  But  in  1820,  John  Walker, 
of  Ohio,  a  Presbyterian,  made  offer  to  a  Baptist  preacher  by  the  name  of 
Birch  to  debate  the  question  of  baptism  either  with  him  or  with  any  one 
he  might  select.  Mr.  Campbell  was  urged  to  meet  this  challenge.  The 
correspondence  shows  that  he  did  so  with  great  reluctance,  but,  as  he 
says,  his  "  unwillingness  to  appear,  much  more  to  feel,  afraid  to  defend  " 
his  position  on  the  subject  overcame  his  scruples.  The  discussion  was 
43 


674         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

oral,  but  it  was  afterwards  written  out  and  published  by  Mr.  Campbell. 
It  had  a  large  circulation,  and  excited  an  interest  beyond  all  expectation. 
It  seems  to  have  been  the  first  step  in  his  course  which  suggested  the 
use  of  the  press  for  a  wider  diffusion  of  his  plea  for  a  return  to  "jirim- 
itive  order  "  in  all  things  relating  to  faith  and  practice  in  religion. 

The  combined  cares  and  labors  of  the  farm,  the  Buffalo  Seminary, 
and  the  increasing  and  widening  calls  upon  him  in  the  ministry,  had 
somewhat  impaired  his  health,  and  he  determined  to  change  his  method 
of  work,  and  to  employ  the  power  of  the  press  in  the  propagation  of 
his  own  views.  The  result  was  the  establishment  of  a  printing  press 
at  his  retired  home  in  the  hills  and  forest  solitudes  of  West  Virginia, 
and  the  issue  of  a  monthly  periodical  which  he  called  the  "  Christian 
Baptist."  The  first  number  was  issued  on  the  4th  of  July,  1823.  It 
was  literally  a  child  of  faith  and  hope,  for  there  was  as  yet  no  sub- 
scription list,  no  backing  of  authority,  and  no  ecclesiastical  affiliation 
to  afford  promise  of  patronage.  But  many  circumstances  concurred  to 
give  it  a  speedy  introduction  to  the  public.  It  was  in  the  boldest  sense 
aggressive,  especially  upon  the  "  clergy  "  and  all  humanisms  in  religion, 
and  marked  by  an  energy  in  the  positive  assertion  of  the  "  primitive  or- 
der of  all  things  in  religion,"  that  won  for  it  a  notoriety  unparalleled  in 
religious  journalism.  Simultaneously  with  its  issue  Campbell  made  his 
first  visit  to  Kentucky  to  debate  on  baptism  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  McCalla, 
a  Presbyterian  divine,  by  whom  he  had  been  challenged.  This  created 
among  the  Baptists,  who  were  numerous  in  Kentucky,  a  profound  admi- 
ration for  Mr.  Campbell,  and  they  eagerly  sought  his  "  Christian  Bap- 
tist," that  they  might  learn  something  more  of  their  "  admired  cham- 
pion," and  in  a  short  time  the  ecclesiastic  circles  all  over  Kentucky  were 
ablaze  with  the  excitement  which  the  debate  and  his  writings  produced. 
This  unpretentious  monthly  was  continued  for  seven  years,  and  its  influ- 
ence was  widespread.  Mr.  Campbell  was  earnestly  invited  to  make  ex- 
tensive tours,  and  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  Tennessee  were  all  visited  by 
him.  Wherever  he  went  multitudes  poured  out  to  hear  him,  and  his  life 
was  one  unremitted  "  labor  in  word  and  doctriiae."  It  has  been  computed 
that  in  these  seven  years  he  printed  and  circulated  forty-six  thousand  vol- 
umes of  his  writings  in  the  defense  and  dissemination  of  his  views.  The 
"  Christian  Baptist"  was  in  1830  superseded  by  the  "  Millennial  Hai'- 
binger,"  a  monthly  of  sixty  pages,  which  was  continued  till  1864. 

The  limits  of  this  article  forbid  more  than  a  passing  allusion  to  the 
His  books  and  ^ig^^y  labors  of  this  extraordinary  man.  His  published 
his  great  debates,  -yyori^g  amouut  to  about  sixty  volumes.  He  held,  besides 
the  debates  with  Walker  and  McCalla,  already  mentioned,  other  discus- 
sions, in  all  which  he  displayed  the  remarkable  powers  of  memory, 
wit,  ridicule,  sarcasm,  and  repartee  for  which  he  was  distinguished ;  but 
these  were  ever  subordinated  to  the  defense  and  elucidation  of  truth, 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    ALEXANDER    CAMPBELL.  675 

the  reproof  and  discomfiture  of  tradition  and  authority,  and  the  exposure 
of  superstition  and  delusion.  His  great  learning,  ready  invention,  adroit 
skill  as  a  dialectician,  and  keen  penetration  by  which  he  saw  at  a  glance 
into  the  heart  of  all  questions,  and  drove  the  point  of  his  javelin  straight 
to  the  vital  point  of  controversy ;  these,  with  a  coolness  and  self-posses- 
sion that  no  fire  of  assault  could  excite,  nor  artifice  of  sophistry  embar- 
rass, constituted  his  irresistible  power  as  a  debater.  He  always  thoroughly 
understood  his  subject,  —  both  sides  of  it,  —  always  entered  into  its  dis- 
cussion with  a  deep  conviction  of  its  importance,  always  subjected  it  to, 
with  him,  the  one  test  of  verity,  the  sacred  Scriptures,  always  thought 
himself  right,  and  never  doubted  that  with  the  truth  on  his  side,  he 
could  debate  successfully  with  any  antagonist. 

His  devotion  to  truth  was  chivalric.  His  soul  rose  like  David's  against 
any  champion  who  defied  the  cause  of  Christ.  When  he  first  saw  the 
arrogant  and  unaccepted  challenge  of  Robert  Owen,  the  socialist,  to  dis- 
cuss with  any  of  the  clergy  his  infidel  doctrines,  Mr.  Campbell  replied, 
"  I  have  felt  indignant  at  the  aspect  of  things  in  reference  to  this  infidel 
and  lawless  scheme,"  and  immediately  took  up  the  gauntlet,  "  relying," 
as  he  exjiressed  it,  "  on  the  Author,  the  reasonableness,  and  the  excel- 
lency of  the  Christian  religion."  And  when,  in  the  College  of  Teachers, 
Bishop  Purcell  afiirmed  that  "  the  Protestant  Reformation  had  been  the 
cause  of  all  the  contention  and  infidelity  in  the  world,"  Mr.  Campbell  im- 
mediately challenged  him  to  make  good  his  calumny  in  public  debate,  and 
so  brought  on  the  most  notable  and  powerful  exposure  of  Romanism  that 
has  ever  been  made.  In  18-43  he  held  the  most  comprehensive,  learned, 
and  famous  discussion  of  his  life,  the  debate  with  Dr.  Rice  at  Lexington, 
Kentucky.  Almost  every  controversial  topic  in  the  wide  range  of  the- 
ology came  under  consideration,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  this  discussion, 
and  the  comprehensive  sweep  of  Mr.  Campbell's  learning  and  genius 
never  shone  more  conspicuously  than  in  the  majestic  power  with  which 
he  handled  the  sublimest  and  the  profoundest  questions  ever  grappled  by 
the  human  mind. 

He  was  the  friend  and  patron  of  every  enterprise  that  had  in  it  the 
purpose  and  the  promise  of  enlightening  and  civilizing  the  masses  of  men. 
The  cause  of  education  stood,  in  his  esteem,  next  to  Christianity,  at  once 
its  product  and  its  ally ;  and  to  bring  its  powerful  agency  to  her  aid 
was  his  cherished  object  in  the  founding  of  Bethany  College. 
He  had  labored  long  and  earnestly  to  excite  the  people  to  '^  "^  ^^^' 
the  study  of  the  Word  of  God  ;  had  compiled,  revised,  and  published 
and  circulated  widely  new  versions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  had  taught 
multitudes  of  people  how  to  study  the  Bible,  and  excited  whole  commii- 
nities,  all  over  the  land,  to  the  formation  of  Bible  classes,  and  the  in- 
vestigation of  divine  truth  for  themselves ;  had  claimed  for  it  its  jjlace 
and  agency  in  the  conversion  of  the  world  to  Christ;  and  his  thought 


676  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

was  still  further  to  honor  the  sacred  oracles,  and  incorporate  their  power 
with  the  elements  of  our  public  life,  by  founding  a  college  in  which  the 
Bible  should  be  a  text-book.  No  man  understood  better  the  power  of 
education,  or  believed  more  fully  in  the  maxim  that  whatever  is  to  ap- 
pear in  the  life  of  a  people  should  be  put  into  the  studies  of  the  schools. 
A  college  founded  upon  the  Bible  was  but .  the  natural  offspring  of  his 
life-long  struggle  to  bring  all  things  in  religion  to  the  one  standard  of  the 
Word  of  God. 

His  reverence  for  the  Bible,  his  faith  in  the  power  of  the  Word  to 
work  out  the  revolution  of  the  world,  his  constant  and  unremitted  study 
of  it,  his  ability  to  repeat  it  and  run  the  long  chain  of  sequences  in  its 
mighty  arguments,  his  comprehension  of  its  meaning,  his  grasp  of  its 
wondrous  system  and  scheme,  his  sympathy  with  its  all-comprehending 
philanthropy,  his  lofty  admiration  and  conce2:)tion  of  the  majesty,  dignity, 
and  glory  of  its  Christ,  his  humility  and  his  confidence  before  this  pres- 
ence as  revealed  in  our  nature,  his  power  to  magnify  and  exalt  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men  the  love  of  God  as  manifested  in  the  gift  of 
his  Son  for  their  redemption,  his  power  to  grasp  and  model  into  shape 
and  hold  up  before  the  imagination  in  vivid  and  sublime  pictures  the 
deep  things  of  God,  —  the  great  mystery  of  godliness,  —  these  are  some 
of  the  points  in  which  Alexander  Campbell  stood  out  among  men,  con- 
spicuous in  his  generation. 

Socially  he  was  one  of  the  most  genial  of  men.  The  abounding  buoy- 
ancy of  his  spirits  lifted  all  men  out  of  their  despondency, 

His  private  life.  J  1  l  JJ 

and  imparted  to  them,  for  the  time,  an  energy  and  heart 
above  themselves.  In  his  family  his  presence  was  a  perpetual  benedic- 
tion. Severe  as  he  was  in  the  religious  discipline  of  his  household  in 
the  study  and  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  there  was  nothing  of  the 
ascetic  in  his  life  or  bearing,  and  cheerfulness  shone  as  a  blessed  atmos- 
phere wherever  he  went.  In  converse  he  was  a  discourser.  You  could 
not,  you  did  not  want  to  interrupt  him  by  replies.  No  matter  what  the 
topic  might  be,  he  soon  struck  off  some  grand  analogy  that  led  him  to 
Christ  and  his  redemption,  and  the  current  of  his  thoughts  became  too 
deep,  the  soarings  of  his  imagination  too  high,  the  majesty  and  sweep  of 
his  thought  too  sublime  and  wide,  for  you  to  feel  like  interrupting  him, 
or  to  wish  to  arrest  him.  In  his  many  and  long  tours,  his  intercourse  with 
the  thousands  who  thronged  to  hear  liim,  whether  in  the  pvxlpit,  in  the 
stage-coach,  or  by  the  fireside,  was,  as  it  were,  an  unbroken  monologue 
on  the  one  sublime  but  myriad-sided  theme  of  the  gospel. 

As  he  lived  so  he  died.  He  gradually  blossomed  into  a  beautiful  old 
age,  just  forgetful  enough  of  the  concerns  of  this  world  to  feel  no  an- 
noyance from  them,  just  mindful  enough  of  them  to  throw  over  them  the 
sweetness  of  a  most  divine  charity  ;  and  with  respect  to  the  objects  of 
the  future  life,  lifting  up  to  them  a  clearer  vision  and  a  more  rapturous 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JOHN  MASON  PECK.  677 

joy  of  anticipation,  as  he  day  by  day  drew  nearer  to  their  possession. 
"  Heaven  seemed  to  lie  about  him,"  as '  he  walked  in  holy  meditation 
among  the  trees  of  his  own  planting ;  and  when  in  his  eighty-eighth  year, 
at  the  close  of  a  lovely  Sabbath  day  in  March,  his  eye  rested  upon  the 
light  of  the  setting  sun  as  it  streamed  into  his  chamber,  almost  his  last 
words  were,  "  Yes,  the  setting  sun  !  It  will  soon  go  down.  But  unto 
them  that  fear  his  name  shall  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  arise  with  heal- 
ing in  his  wings."  —  W.  K.  P. 


LIFE  XIX.     JOHN  MASON  PECK. 

A.    D.    1789-A.    D.    1857.      BAPTIST, AMERICA. 

The  fact,  though  humiliating,  should  be  salutary  in  its  influence,  that 
very  few  persons  are  remembered  for  any  long  period  after  they  die. 
Of  almost  all  "  born  of  women  "  it  may  be  said,  they  live,  they  die,  and 
are  forgotten.  Here  and  there  a  name  is  found  on  the  page  of  history, 
but  the  names  of  countless  millions  are  not  there,  and  were  never  there. 

As  there  is  this  general  tendency  to  oblivion,  —  a  tendency  which  can- 
not be  arrested,  —  the  only  thing  the  living  can  do  is  to  rescue,  as  well  as 
they  can,  the  names  of  a  few  from  forgetfulness.  These  names  must 
obviously  be  few.  The  many  cannot  be  remembered.  As  Protestant 
Christendom  is  divided  into  different  religious  denominations,  it  is  well 
for  these  denominations  to  preserve  a  record  of  some,  of  their  represent- 
ative men,  if  not  of  all.  Such  men  are  to  be  found,  and  among  them,  in 
the  Baptist  denomination,  is  John  Mason  Peck,  who,  in  his  generation, 
was  a  zealous  laborer  in  the  kingdom  of  his  Lord. 

Of  Puritan  descent,  he  was  born  in  Connecticut  on  the  31st  of  Octo- 
ber, 1789,  a  year  signalized  by  the  inauguration  of  George  Washington 
as  the  first  president  of  the  United  States.  The  only  child  jjj^  ^^^^  ^^_ 
of  poor  parents,  he  was  required,  when  about  fourteen  fi^^i^es. 
years  of  age,  through  the  physical  disability  of  his  father,  to  perform 
the  chief  labor  of  cultivating  their  small  farm.  Devoting  the  largest 
part  of  the  year  to  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  he  availed  himself  during 
the  winter  of  the  advantages  of  the  common  school.  These  advantages 
were  quite  limited  as  compared  with  those  of  the  present  time.  Boys 
and  girls  were  tavight  spelling,  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  Geog- 
raphy and  grammar  were  not  included  in  the  regular  studies  of  the 
common  schools.  Dr.  Peck  in  after  years  may  have  disparaged  himself 
at  this  period  of  his  life,  for  he  referred  to  himself  as  "  more  stupid  and 
sluggish  than  ordinary  lads."  When  at  eighteen  years  of  age  he  taught 
school,  for  a  time  he  felt  and  deplored  his  deficiencies,  but,  as  is  often 
the  case,  a  consciousness  of  ignorance   stimulated  effort  in  pursuit  of 


678  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

knowledge.  He  was  constantly  adding  to  his  stock  of  information,  and 
became  more  intelligent  than  most  young  men  of  his  age. 

Like  many  boys,  John  had  religious  impressions  at  an  early  age,  which, 
however,  were  only  occasional  and  transient.  It  was  not  until  he 
reached  his  eighteenth  year  that  his  impressions  became  deep  and  per- 
manent. He  was  induced  to  attend  a  meeting  where  a  revival  was  in 
progress.  "  Here,"  to  use  his  own  words,  "  I  was  brought  to  see  myself 
a  guilty  sinner  before  God,  deserving  his  wrath.  These  exercises  con- 
tinued and  increased  for  about  one  week.  I  viewed  myself  lost  without 
the  interposition  of  God's  mercy.  My  distress  increased,  and  my  bur- 
den became  heavier,  until  the  end  of  the  week,  when  I  was  delivered, 
and  found  a  peace  of  mind  and  a  joy  in  God  which  I  had  never  felt  be- 
fore. Insensibly,  my  heart  was  drawn  out  to  love  and  praise  the  Lord. 
....  My  hope  was  not  at  first  as  clear  and  bright  as  it  afterwards  be- 
came, when  a  fuller  discovery  was  made  of  the  way  of  salvation  through 
the  merits  of  Christ." 

From  this  epoch  in  his  life  Mr.  Peck  seems  to  have  been  recognized 
as  a  member  of  a  Congregational  church  to  which  his  parents  belonged. 
The  change  which  had  taken  place  in  him  involved  jjreeminently  his 
spiritual  nature,  but  a  wonderful  impulse  was  given  also  to  his  mental 
nature.  His  mind  became  more  vigorous  and  active.  It  was  quickened 
and  strengthened  by  contact  with  the  glorious  truths  of  the  gospel, 
though  his  literary  attainments  were  very  meagre.  It  appears  strange 
now  that  Mr.  Peck  did  not  seek  the  advantages  of  thorough  scholarship, 
but  instead  of  doing  so  he  married  when  nineteen  years  of  age.  It  is  to 
be  supposed  that  at  the  time  he  did  not  expect  to  become  a  minister  of 
the  gospel,  for  with  such  an  expectation  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  he 
would  entangle  himself  with  the  cares  of  a  family,  and  preclude  himself 
from  the  benefits  of  a  suitable  education.  We  must  not,  however,  be 
severe  in  our  judgment,  as  we  know  not  all  the  circumstances  surround- 
ing him. 

Bringing  his  bride  to  the  paternal  home,  where  he  was  born,  he  lived 
there  with  his  parents  for  about  two  years.  The  birth  of  the  first 
child  of  the  young  married  pair  led  to  important  results,  —  results  which 
changed  Mr.  Peck's  denominational  relations  for  life.  It  was  expected 
that  the  child  would,  as  the  common  phrase  was,  be  "  dedicated  to  God 
by  baptism,"  but  the  mother  saw  no  Scriptural  authority  for  the  baptism 
of  infants,  and  while  the  father  did  not  agree  with  her  he  was  induced 
to  examine  the  subject,  and  became  greatly  perplexed  concerning  it. 

In  his  perplexity  he  had  numerous  interviews  with  the  Rev.  Lyman 
Beecher,  whose  name  was  afterward  known  throughout  Christendom. 
Mr.  Beecher  was  of  course  as  able  as  any  other  man  to  present  the  ar- 
guments in  favor  of  infant  baptism,  but  they  did  not  satisfy  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Peck.     Their  child  was  not  baptized. 


Cent.  XVII.-XTX.]         JOHN  MASON  PECK.  679 

Having  remained  with  his  father  for  two  years,  Mr.  Peck  decided  to 
remove  to  the  State  of  New  York.  Leaving  his  native  Connecticut, 
which  he  ever  loved,  he  found  a  home  in  Green  County,  New  York. 
Here  he  had  a  better  opportunity  than  before  of  b.ecoming  acquainted 
with  Baptists.  Nor  will  it  surprise  any  one  that  he  with  his  wife 
became  Baptists.  Their  renunciation  of  infant  baptism  led  them  of  ne- 
cessity to  believe  that  the  rite  as  administered  to  them  was  null  and  void. 
Regarding  themselves  unbaptized,  and  believing  baptism  to  be  not  a 
parental  but  a  personal  act,  they  began  to  inquire,  What  is  baptism? 
After  due  examination  they  found  but  one  answer  to  this  question. 
They  were  immersed  on  a  profession  of  their  faith  in  Enters  the  Bap- 
Christ.  Having  become  members  of  the  New  Durham  '^'®'  church. 
Baptist  Church,  it  was  not  long  before  the  church,  according  to  the  usage 
of  the  Baptist  denomination,  gave  license  to  Peck  to  preach  the  gospel. 
He  "conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood,"  but  the  next  day  made  his  first 
attempt  at  expounding  a  text.  His  missionary  impulses  led  him  to  dis- 
cuss Mark  xvi.  15,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  pi-each  the  gospel  to 
every  creature."  He  seems  to  have  preached  with  great  jjersonal  enjoy- 
ment, and,  like  many  young  preachers,  he  thought  the  light  and  glory  of 
that  day  would  never  be  followed  by  darkness  or  gloom.  Alas  for  him, 
one  week  did  not  pass  away  before  he  had  what  he  calls  "  sore  trials." 
Having  as  a  licensed  minister  preached  acceptably  for  about  two  years, 
his  ordination  was  called  for  by  the  church  in  Catskill,  New  York,  and 
was  granted  by  a  council  met  for  the  purpose  on  the  9th  of  June,  1813. 
From  that  time  forward  he  preached  the  gospel  and  administered  the 
ordinances  as  he  had  opportunity.  In  1815  he  became  acquainted  with 
Rev.  Luther  Rice,  who  was  performing  almost  superhuman  labor  in 
traveling  tlu-ough  the  North  and  the  South,  and  in  appealing  to  the 
churches  in  behalf  of  foreign  missions.  Rice  found  in  Peck  a  congenial 
spirit  and  received  important  assistance  from  him.  Indeed,  the  soul  of 
Peck  was  so  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  missions  that  he  was  contemplat- 
ing a  personal  consecration  to  the  enterprise.  Often  he  found  himself 
secretly  saying,  "  Here  am  I,  send  me."  A  moment's  reflection,  how- 
ever, convinced  him  of  his  lack  of  qualifications  for  so  important  a  work. 
His  zeal  in  the  missionary  cause  led  him  to  acquaint  himself  with  the 
plans  and  purposes  of  the  Baptist  Triennial  Convention  for  Foreign 
Missions,  formed  in  the  year  1814,  of  which  Rev.  Dr.  William  Staugh- 
toil  was  corresponding  secretary.  Dr.  Staughton  was  pastor  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  was  thought  by  many  to  be  the  most  eloquent  man  of  his 
generation.  His  energy  and  industry  were  almost  incredible.  He  often 
preached  four  and  five  times  on  the  Lord's  day,  lectured  in  schools  and 
academies  on  week-days,  visited  the  sick  and  attended  the  funerals  of 
the  dead,  maintained  an  extensive  correspondence,  and  had  theological 
students  under  his  instruction. 


680  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

The  further  Mr.  Peck  prosecuted  the  work  of  the  ministry,  the  more 
conscious  he  was  of  his  need  of  theological  training.  He  was  no  doubt 
drawn  by  his  missionary  sympathies  to  Dr.  Staughton,  and  amid  many 
difficulties  arrangements  were  made  for  him  to'  opend  about  two  years  in 
Philadelphia.  There  was  not  at  that  time  a  regular  theological  school 
amono-  the  Baptists  of  America,  and  it  was  thought  a  great  privilege  to 
have  the  instruction  of  Dr.  Staughton.  It  was  a  severe  trial  to  Peck  to 
leave  his  family  in  their  New  York  home,  but  it  seemed  to  be  a  neces- 
sity. He  sacrificed  domestic  comfort  for  the  sake  of  qualifying  himself 
as  well  as  possible  for  the  great  work  of  his  life.  He  visited  his  family 
once  or  twice  a  year. 

Very  soon  after  the  formation  of  the  triennial  convention,  in  1814, 
the  policy  of  sending  missionaries  to  the  Missouri  Territory  was  dis- 
cussed by  the  board  of  managers.  This  immense  region  lying  west  of 
the  Mississippi  was  a  part  of  what  was  called  the  "  Louisiana  Purchase," 
Ana  ostieof  made  by  President  Jefferson  from  France  in  1803.  Peck 
the  West.  ^nd  One  of  his  fellow-students,  Rev.  James  E.  Welch,  were 

appointed  missionaries  to  this  territory  on  the  17th  of  May,  1817.  Peck 
wrote,  "  The  long  agony  is  over.  The  board  have  accepted  Mr.  Welch 
and  myself  as  missionaries  to  the  Missouri  Territory  during  our  and  their 
pleasure,  and  have  appropriated  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  to  de- 
fray our  getting  to  St.  Louis  and  for  the  support  of  the  mission.  In 
this  I  think  I  see  the  hand  of  God  most  visibly." 

At  once  Peck  made  arrangements  to  start  with  his  family  for  his 
Western  home.  He  left  his  father's  house  on  the  25th  of  July.  His 
mode  of  conveyance  to  his  place  of  destination  was  "  a  little  one-horse 
wao-on,"  in  which  was  found  room  for  the  father,  mother,  and  three  chil- 
dren. The  journey  to  the  Mississippi,  now  requiring  less  than  two 
days,  demanded  then  several  months  of  laborious  travel  and  no  little  ex- 
posure to  danger.  Almost  a  month  was  spent  in  getting  from  Philadel- 
phia over  the  Alleghany  Mountains  to  Pittsburgh.  Thence  Peck  made 
his  way  through  the  State  of  Ohio,  passed  into  Kentucky,  where  he 
joined  his  colleague  Welch,  and  on  the  6th  of  Noveraber  they  crossed 
the  Ohio  River  at  Shawneetown.  They  were  then  in  Illinois,  at  that 
time  a  Territory,  but  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State  the  next  year 
(1818).  There  had  been  very  heavy  rains  and  the  Ohio  River  had  risen 
rapidly,  and  many  parts  of  the  country  were  submerged.  The  mission- 
aries were  in  great  perplexity,  and  it  was  finally  decided  that  Mr.  Peck 
and  family  should  go  by  boat  to  St.  Louis  and  leave  Mr.  Welch  to  make 
his  way  by  land  as  soon  as  the  subsidence  of  the  waters  would  permit. 
The  only  boat  available  was  called  a  keel-boat,  afterward  desci-ibed  by 
Mr.  Peck  as  follows  :  — 

"  A  keel-boat  in  shape  very  nearly  resembled  a  canal  boat,  but  with  a 
gunwale  on  each  side  twelve  or  fifteen  inches  in  width.     Besides  hoisting 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        JOHN  MASON  PECK.  681 

a  sail  in  a  favorable  wind,  especially  when  going  down  stream,  there 
were  three  modes  of  propelling  a  keel-boat  in  passing  up  stream.  These 
were  the  use  of  the  cordelle,  the  setting  pole,  and  occasionally  bush- 
whacking. Except  in  crossing  a  river,  when  oars  were  used,  the  boat 
had  to  creeji  along  shore." 

The  splendid  steamboats  which  now  ply  on  the  Ohio  River,  with  their 
luxurious  accommodations,  present  a  gratifying  contrast  to  the  keel-boats 
of  other  days.  Indeed,  the  "  bushwhacking  "  operation,  which  consisted 
in  catching  hold  of  the  limbs  of  trees  and  dragging  the  boat  along,  is  now 
regarded  as  something  to  laugh  at,  but  there  was  nothing  laughable  in 
the  effort  to  get  the  keel-boat  up  the  Mississippi,  though  it  may  have 
gone  down  the  Ohio  with  but  little  difficulty.  This  Mr.  Peck  fully  as- 
certained, and  had  his  patience  severely  tested.  In  addition  to  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  navigation  he  was,  when  near  Cape  Girardeau,  assailed 
by  disease,  which  for  a  time  threatened  a  serious  pulmonary  affection. 
The  little  boat  reached  St.  Louis  the  first  day  of  December,  more  than 
four  months  from  the  time  Peck  set  out  on  his  laborious  jom-ney.  He 
had  traveled  over  twelve  hundred  miles.  Having  landed  at  St.  Louis, 
the  first  thing  was  to  j^rocure  accommodations  for  himself  and  family, 
and  the  best  he  could  do  was  to  rent,  for  twelve  dollars  a  month,  "  a 
single  room."  He  found  some  resj^ectable  families,  but  the  most  of  the 
people  were  wicked  and  of  vulgar  tastes,  while  many  of  them  were  blas- 
pheming infidels.  The  latter  had  been  known  to  engage  in  "  a  mock 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  and  in  "burning  the  Bible,"  while 
they  openly  said  that  "  the  Sabbath  never  had  crossed,  and  never  should 
cross,  the  Mississippi."  These  were  discouragements,  but  they  pro- 
claimed in  trumpet  tones  the  great  need  of  missionary  labor.  As  soon 
as  possible  Peck  and  Welch  began  to  prosecute  the  objects  of  their  mis- 
sion, "  They  rented  a  school-room  and  commenced  teaching,  while  for 
want  of  better  accommodations  they  occupied  the  same  room  on  the 
Sabbath  and  on  Wednesday  evening  for  preaching.  In  February  they 
constituted  a  small  church.  In  April  they  baptized  several  candidates, 
using  for  the  first  time,  as  they  thought,  the  great  river  for  this  solemn 
Christian  ordinance.  Very  soon  they  opened  a  subscription  for  building 
a  church  edifice,  and  were  greatly  cheered  by  obtaining  on  it  nearly 
three  thousand  dollars In  the  mean  time,  they  opened  a  Sunday- 
school  for  the  instruction  of  colored  children  and  adults,  and  were  soon 
cheered  with  finding  nearly  one  hundred  names  enrolled  as  pupils."  I 
presume  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  first  Sunday-school  for 
colored  children  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  it  therefore  has  a  chrono- 
logical distinction  worthy  of  remembrance. 

It  would  be  agreeable  to  dwell  in  detail  on  the  various  labors  of  the 
missionaries  in  St.  Louis.     This,  however,  cannot  be  done. 

Peck  could  not  long  resist  his  desire  to  explore  certain  parts  of  Mis- 


682  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

souri  and  Illinois,  and  he  therefore,  as  he  found  it  practicable,  made 
preaching  excursions  from  St.  Louis,  and  learned  the  religious  state  of 
things  in  many  places.  The  bi'ethren  whose  missionary  he  was  received 
from  him  the  first  trustworthy  information  from  im^^ortant  parts  of  the 
Great  West.  In  one  of  his  excursions  Peck  had  an  interview  with  "  the 
veritable  Daniel  Boone,  the  pioneer  and  hunter  of  Kentucky."  He  was 
very  favorably  impressed  by  the  conversation  of  the  old  man,  who 
"  spoke  feelingly  and  with  solemnity  of  being  a  creature  of  Providence, 
ordained  by  Heaven  as  a  pioneer  in  the  wilderness  to  advance  the  civil- 
ization and  extension  of  his  country."  Boone  was  then  (1818)  more 
than  eighty  years  old. 

At  the  present  time,  in  reading  Mr.  Peck's  diary,  we  are  almost  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  too  little  concentration  in  his  labors. 
His  motives  were  imquestionably  pure  in  traveling  and  preaching  through 
a  large  extent  of  country,  and  no  doubt  some  of  the  seed  which  he  sowed 
in  so  large  a  field  sprang  uj)  and  bore  fruit.  Indeed,  to  this  day  there 
are  delightful  reminiscences  of  his  labors  of  love,  and  when  he  was  im- 
portuned by  those  who  had  not  heard  a  sermon  for  years  to  repeat  his 
visits  it  was  well-nigh  impossible  for  him  to  decline  compliance  with  re- 
quests so  earnestly  made.  Still,  it  might  have  been  better  if,  for  several 
years,  he  had  concentrated  his  efforts  as  a  missionary  at  St.  Louis.  The 
brethren  under  whose  appointment  he  was  acting  most  probably  thought, 
so,  for  it  is  obvious  that  results  at  St.  Louis  did  not  equal  their  expecta- 
tions. They  seem  to  have  beeup  rather  impatient  of  speedy  results.  It 
is  often  the  case  that  missionary  boards  indulge  hopes  destined  to  jDartial 
disappointment.  There  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  serious  com- 
plaint of  the  St.  Louis  missionaries,  but  they  were  informed  July  9, 
1820,  that  the  mission  was  closed.  Two  of  the  reasons  influencing  the 
action  of  the  board  were  these  :  (1.)  "  The  want  of  ample  funds  for  a 
vigorous  prosecution.  (2.)  A  supposition  on  the  part  of  the  board  that 
this  region  would  be  soon  supplied  by  the  immigration  into  it  of  preach- 
ers from  the  Middle  and  Eastern  States."  Peck  was  directed  to  remove 
to  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  and  join  Isaac  McCoy  in  his  labors  among  the 
Indians.  The  board  was  earnestly  requested  to  reconsider  the  subject, 
and  such  reasons  against  his  going  to  Fort  Wayne  were  assigned  by 
Peck  as  induced  a  compliance  with  his  wishes.  His  connection  with  the 
board  of  the  triennial  convention  was,  however,  dissolved. 

In  the  year  1822,  Peck  received  an  appointment  from  the  Massachu- 
setts Baptist  Missionary  Society.  His  commission  bears  the  signature 
of  two  honored  names,  Thomas  Baldwin,  j^resident,  and  Daniel  Sharp, 
secretary.  We  must  consider  the  state  of  things  then,  or  it  will  appear 
incredible  that  the  society  agreed  to  pay  the  missionary  only  "  five  dollars 
a  week  "  while  engaged  in  actual  service,  and  he  was  "  to  raise  as  much 
as  practicable  of  this   amount  on  the  field  of  his  labors  " !     It  is  not 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         JOHN  MASON  PECK.  683 

strange  that  the  life  of  a  missionary  is  proverbially  regarded  as  one  of 
trials  and  privations.  Peck's  meagre  support  did  not  diminish  his  zeal 
nor  paralyze  his  energy.  He  was  obliged,  however,  to  consult  economy, 
and  in  doing  so  removed  to  Rock  Spring,  Illinois,  which  thenceforth  was 
his  home.  Obtaining  a  half  section  of  unimproved  land,  and  aided  by 
his  neighbors,  he  erected  suitable  buildings,  and  began  to  till  the  soil  to 
supplement  a  support  which  could  not  otherwise  be  secured.  His  con- 
genial work  was  preaching  the  gospel,  and  to  men  of  lethargic  tempera- 
ment the  extent  of  his  ministerial  labors  seems  scarcely  credible.  "  In 
season  and  out  of  season,"  in  town  and  country,  by  day  and  by  night, 
he  proclaimed  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation.  To  quote  from  one  of  his 
letters  :  — 

"  With  sincerity  of  soul  I  can  say  there  is  no  pursuit  that  affords  such 
exquisite  satisfaction  as  activity  and  success  in  measures  to  promote  the 
gospel.  I  might  dwell  upon  the  difficulties  attendant  on  an  itinerating 
life,  as  absence  from  home,  exposure  to  sickness,  storms,  cold,  mud, 
swimming  rivers,  and  not  unfrequently  rough  fare  ;  but  these  are  trifles 
not  worthy  of  one  moment's  anxious  concern.  To  live  and  labor  for 
Him  who  died  for  the  redemption  of  man  is  the  highest  favor  we  need 
seek  after  in  this  transitory  life." 

This  extract  breathes  the  missionary  spirit ;  and  the  missionary  spirit 
would  be  the  martyr  spirit,  should  the  days  of  martyrdom  return.  Peck 
was  the  ardent  friend  of  missions,  and  while  laboring  in  the  good  cause 
learned  to  his  sorrow  that  many  families  were  without  the  Word  of  God. 
He  did  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  undertake  the  formation  of  Bible  soci- 
eties, that  the  people  might  be  supplied  with  the  Scriptures.  During  the 
next  year  (1823)  he  accepted  an  agency  from  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety, and  engaged  actively  in  the  organization  of  auxiliary  societies.  In 
connection  with  this  work,  he  became  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  a 
society  to  jiromote  Sunday-schools,  and  arranged  his  plan  of  operation. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  was  a  year  before  the  formation  of  the 
American  Sunday-School  Union.  There  was  in  that  day  no  man  in  Illi- 
nois or  Missouri  so  devoted  to  the  circulation  of  the  Bible  and  the  pro- 
motion of  Sunday-schools  as  was  Mr.  Peck.  It  was  his  deep  interest  in 
the  Sunday-school  enterprise  which  induced  him,  twenty  years  later,  to 
accept,  for  a  time,  the  secretaryship  of  the  American  Baj)tist  Publication 
Society,  whose  head-quarters  are  in  Philadelphia.  The  success  of  this 
organization  was  not  for  some  years  after  its  formation  in  1824  very  satis- 
factory ;  but  it  is  now  a  great  power  in  the  denomination  that  sustains  it. 
Its  business  and  benevolent  receipts  are  not  far  from  half  a  million  of 
dollars  annually.  Peck  regarded  it  as  a  grand  means  of  doing  good. 
His  prayers  for  its  prosperity  were  frequent  and  fervent. 

Though  by  no  means  a  perfect  literary  or  theological  scholar.  Peck  felt 
a  profound  interest  in  the  cause  of  education.     Very  soon  after  his  re- 


684  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

moval  to  the  West  he  began  to  consider  the  project  of  founding  a  semi- 
nary, chiefly  with  a  view  to  the  education  of  young  ministers.  The  diffi- 
culties in  his  way  were  so  great  that  they  yielded  only  to  his  heroic 
energy  and  unfaltering  perseverance.  In  1827  the  institution  which  he 
styled  Rock  Spring  Seminary  was  established,  which,  in  process  of 
development,  became  the  Alton  Seminary,  and  is  now  ShurtlefF  College, 
where  the  advantages  of  collegiate  and  theological  training  are  enjoyed. 
Truly,  the  seed  sown  by  Mr.  Peck  is  bearing  fruit,  "  some  thirty,  some 
sixty,  and  some  an  hundred  fold." 

It  was  during  a  visit  to  the  Eastern  States,  in  1826,  that  Peck  had  an 
interview  with  Jonathan  Goinjj,  of  Massachusetts,  and  im- 

Father  of  the  n         ,  .  i       V        .  ^  a 

Home  Mission  pressed  him  most  deeply  with  the  importance  of  an  Amer- 
ican Baptist  Home  Mission  Society.  Six  years  after,  such 
a  society  was  formed  in  New  York,  and  Dr.  Going  was  appointed  its 
first  secretary.  The  formation  of  the  society  had  special  reference  to  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  destitute  thousands  of  the  "West,  and  it 
was  Peck  who  gave  information  as  to  their  condition.  It  seems,  there- 
fore, that  a  society  now  employing  three  hundred  missionaries  is  histor- 
ically traceable  to  the  active  mind  and  benevolent  heart  of  John  Mason 
Peck.  If  this  had  been  the  only  work  of  his  life,  it  was  well  worth  while 
for  him  to  live. 

From  what  has  been  already  said,  it  will  be  inferred  that  Peck  had 
enlarged  views  of  the  power  of  the  press.  This  is  true,  and  it  is  to  be 
said  in  honor  of  his  enterprise  that  he  became  "  editor  and  publisher  of 
the  first  religious  newspaper  in  that  wide  region,  where  so  many  have 
since  flourished."  It  was  very  appropriately  called  "  The  Pioneer."  It 
was  jDrinted  first  at  Rock  Spring,  afterward  at  Alton,  and  styled  the 
"  Western  Pioneer  ;  "  but  it  was  subsequently  united  with  the  "  Baptist 
Banner "  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  the  two  papers  are  perpetuated 
in  the  "  Western  Recorder."  Peck's  was  a  prolific  pen.  He  wrote  ex- 
tensively for  religious  papers,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  amid  his  mul- 
tiform labors  he  published  two  volumes,  "  Guide  to  Emigrants  "  and 
"  Life  of  Daniel  Boone."  Of  the  former  volume  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher 
expressed  a  very  high  opinion,  and  it  is  enough  to  say  of  the  latter  that 
it  was  published  in  Dr.  Sparks's  American  Biography.  While  Peck  was 
a  laborious  preacher  and  a  forcible  writer,  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to  de- 
cide whether  he  accomplished  more  good  by  the  living  voice  or  by  the 
pen  he  wielded  so  industriously.  This  is  a  question  which  can  find 
no  accurate  answer  till  the  light  of  eternity  dispels  the  obscurity  of  our 
present  conceptions. 

In  the  year  1852  Peck  received  from  Harvard  University  the  title  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity.  No  man  cared  less  for  such  honors,  and  few  men 
were  so  worthy  of  them.  He  appreciated  the  compliment  as  coming  from 
an   institution  whose  religious  views  were  not  congenial  with  his  own. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        JOHN  MASON  PECK.  685 

Too  often  the  distinctions  of  title  are  conferred  by  denominational  col- 
leges for  denominational  reasons,  and  comparatively  young  men  aspire 
to  and  obtain  the  coveted  doctorate.  Harvard  honored  Dr.  Peck  when 
he  had  reached  his  threescore  years,  when  his  stores  of  knowledge  were 
unquestionable,  and  the  powers  of  his  mind  were  in  full  maturity. 

The  reader  of  this  story  will  have  seen  that  Dr.  Peck  was  remarkable 
for  originating  plans  of  doing  good.  It  was  therefore  characteristic  of 
him  when,  in  1853,  he  projected  the  American  Baptist  Historical  Soci- 
ety. This  institution  has  its  head-quarters  in  Philadelphia,  and  its  chief 
object  is  to  gather  up  and  preserve  the  writings  of  Baptists  in  times  past 
and  present.  In  carrying  out  this  object  much  has  been  done  and  more 
will  be  done.  Dr.  Peck,  at  the  formation  of  the  society,  could  scarcely 
have  thought  that  in  after  years  his  friend  and  fellow-student.  Rev.  Dr. 
Howard  Malcom,  would  so  zealously  espouse  and  promote  the  interests 
of  the  organization. 

But  the  most  active  and  the  most  useful  life  must  have  an  end.  The 
best  men  are  frail  and  mortal.  Dr.  Peck,  after  many  years  spent  in  mul- 
tifarious labors  to  advance  the  cause  of  Christ,  perceived  that  the  time 
of  his  departure  was  at  hand.  Mrs.  Peck  died  October  24,  1856,  and  he 
survived  her  but  a  few  months.  His  death  occurred  March  14,  1857. 
Their  wedded  life  embraced  a  period  of  nearly  half  a  century.  When 
husband  and  wife  have  borne  together  for  long  years  the  burdens  of  life, 
it  is  a  merciful  providence  when  they  die  about  the  same  time,  so  that  the 
survivor  does  not  long  weep  at  the  grave  of  the  dead.  Mrs.  Peck  had 
been,  dui'ing  her  religious  life,  troubled,  more  or  less,  with  doubts  as 
to  her  acceptance  with  God ;  but  on  her  dying  bed  she  "  had  gained 
clearer  views  of  the  all-perfect  righteousness  of  Christ,  and  all  doubts 
were  gone." 

Dr.  Peck,  when  asked  how  he  felt  in  view  of  death,  said,  "  I  feel  as  I 
always  have  felt  since  relying  on  Christ.  If  I  were  not  ready  for  death, 
this  would  be  a  poor  time  to  prepare.  But  I  have  no  fear  of  death  at 
all.  I  assure  you  I  am  a  stranger  to  any  such  feeling  as  fear  in  refer- 
ence to  dying.     Tell  this  to  all  these  kind  friends I  have  never 

done  anything  that  can  save  me.  All  my  works  could  never  rescue 
me  from  destruction.  Only  Christ  is  my  Saviour,  my  whole  depend- 
ence." 

There  is  perfect  consistency  between  unreserved  reliance  on  grace  for 
salvation  and  zealous  activity  in  the  performance  of  good  works.  This 
fact  was  exemplified  in  Paul.  The  grace  that  saved  him  stimulated  him 
to  abundant  labor.  It  was  so  with  Dr.  Peck.  Saved  by  grace,  he  was 
obliged,  under  the  impulses  of  sanctified  gratitude,  to  abound  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord.  He  now  rests  from  his  labors,  and  his  works  do  fol- 
low him.  '•  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord."  John,  the  be- 
loved disciple,  heard  a  voice  from  heaven  uttering  these  precious  words. 


686  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

I  am  glad  he  listened  to  a  voice  from  heaven,  for  if  he  had  listened  to 
any  of  the  ten  thousand  voices  of  earth  he  would  have  recorded  a  very 
different  sentiment.  He  would  have  written,  Blessed  are  the  living,  — 
those  who  live  in  circumstances  of  worldly  affluence  and  splendor.  He 
hearkened  to  a  voice  from  heaven,  which  said,  "  Write,"  —  commit  it  to 
the  imperishable  pages  of  inspiration  for  the  comfort  of  the  saints  in  all 
ages,  —  "  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth ; 
yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors ;  and  their 
works  do  follow  them." 


LIFE   XX.     FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

A.  D.    1796-A.    D.    1865.       BAPTIST, AMERICA. 

Francis  "Watland  may  stand  for  a  typical  American,  grown  from 
American  soil,  formed  by  American  institutions,  and  j^enetrated  by  the 
American  spirit.  He  abhorred  oppression  and  injustice,  and  the  wrongs 
inflicted  by  monarchs  and  nobles  and  social  castes.  He  sympathized 
with  the  people,  and  with  all  institutions  that  guarded  their  rights  and 
strengthened  their  manhood.  He  was  practical  in  aim  and  self-reliant 
in  spirit,  and  believed  that  a  nation  can  prosper  only  as  every  man 
makes  the  most  of  himself. 

He  was  born  in  New  York,  March  11,  1796.  His  parents,  of  good 
English  stock,  emigrated  to  this  country  in  1793.  They  had  little  cult- 
ure, but  possessed  robust  common  sense,  sterling  integrity,  and  sincere 
piety.  The  father,  by  trade  a  currier,  soon  amassed  a  competent  fortune 
for  those  days,  and  retired  from  business  to  become  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel.  In  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  in  1812-1815,  most  of  his  prop- 
erty, invested  in  marine  insurance  companies,  was  lost,  and  he  was  able 
subsequently  to  give  little  aid  to  his  children  in  acquiring  a  liberal  edu- 
cation. The  sou  always  cherished  a  j^rofound  reverence  for  the  memory 
of  his  parents,  especially  of  his  mother,  and  ascribed  his  success  m  life 
to  their  precepts,  example,  and  counsels. 

His  education,  apart  from  the  home  training,  was  of  little  value,  till  he 
came  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Nott  in  his  college  course.  Most  of  his 
teachers  he  thought  incompetent  for  their  work.  One  of  them,  who  had 
some  reputation,  "  never  taught  anything,"  requiring  only  a  repeating  of 
the  text.  Others  asked  no  questions,  nor  made  suggestions  beyond  the 
text-book.  For  a  little  time  he  was  under  the  instruction  of  Mr.  D.  H. 
Barnes  in  the  classics,  an  extraordinary  teacher,  for  whose  inspiring  in- 
fluence he  felt  a  profound  gratitude  through  life. 

But  to  Dr.  Nott,  the  honored  president  of  Union  College,  he  always 
ascribed  the  most  potent  hafluence  in  forming  his  intellectual  character. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        FRANCIS  WAYLAND.  687 

He  loved  this  great  teaclier  with  a  reverence  bordering  on  idolatry.  He 
asserted  that  "  attendance  upon  Dr.  Nott's  course  of  instruction  formed 
an  era  in  the  life  of  every  one  of  his  pupils."  He  thought  Dr.  Nott 
"  decidedly  the  ablest  man  he  had  ever  known  intimately." 

He  graduated  with  distinction  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen,  and  en- 
tered on  the  study  of  medicine,  at  first  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Moses  Hale, 
and  six  months  later  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Eli  Burritt,  of  Troy,  New 
York.  The  latter  was  a  man  of  remarkable  logical  power,  and  an  en- 
thusiast in  his  profession.  He  took  great  interest  in  his  young  student, 
and  stimulated  ambition  by  wise  appeals.  "  Now,  Wayland,"  said  he, 
"  if  you  will  bone  down  to  it,  and  give  your  time  and  strength  to  your 
studies,  I  will  make  a  man  of  you."  The  appeal  was  effective,  and  the 
promise  was  fulfilled. 

At  this  time  occurred  a  curious  change  in  young  Wayland's  intellect- 
ual tastes.  He  had  been  an  inveterate  reader  of  novels  and  books  of 
travels,  taking  no  interest  in  more  solid  reading.  He  suddenly  lost  all 
love  for  novels.  He  describes  the  change  :  "  I  was  sitting  by  a  window, 
in.  an  attic  room  which  I  occupied  as  a  sort  of  study  or  reading-place, 
and  by  accident  I  opened  a  volume  of  the  Spectator,  —  I  think  it  was  to 
one  of  the  essays  forming  Addison's  critique  on  Milton ;  it  was,  at  any 
rate,  something  purely  didactic.  I  commenced  reading  it,  and,  to  my 
delight  and  surprise,  I  found  that  I  understood  it  and  really  enjoyed  it. 
I  could  not  account  for  the  change.  I  I'ead  on,  and  found  that  the  very 
essays  which  I  formerly  passed  over,  without  caring  to  read  them,  were 
now  to  me  the  gems  of  the  whole  book,  vastly  more  attractive  than  the 
stories  and  narratives  that  I  had  formerly  read  with  so  much  interest. 
I  could  explain  it  on  no  other  theory  than  that  a  change  had  taken  place 
in  myself.  I  awoke  to  the  consciousness  that  I  was  a  thinking  being, 
and  a  citizen,  in  some  sort,  of  the  republic  of  letters."  ^  From  that  time 
he  abandoned  novel-reading,  and  his  reading  was  restricted  to  works  of 
standard  excellence. 

During  this  period  he  came  also  under  the  influence  of  a  woman  of 
remarkable  character  and  culture,  Mrs.  Lavinia  Stoddard.  He  always 
regarded  her  as  a  person  of  extraordinary  power,  possessing  "  an  intel- 
lect capable  of  any  amount  of  acquisition,  and  able  to  master  with  ease 
any  conception.  With  these  endowments  were  united  a  power  of  ex- 
pression, and  an  ability  to  do  anything  which  she  determined  to  accom- 
plish. She  was  withal  a  perfect  woman  ;  all  was  delicate  and  refined, 
while  all  was  true  and  pure  and  lovable."  He  looked  upon  the  inti- 
macy with  her  and  her  husband  as  worth  more  to  him  than  his  college 
education. 

Towards  the  close  of  his  medical  education  he  passed  through  the 
great  change  which  shaped  his  life.  The  son  of  religious  2)areuts,  he 
1  Life  and  Labors,  vol.  i.,  p.  42. 


688  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

had  never  become  a  Christian  by  personal  conviction.     Of  a  religious 
•   ^-         nature  himself,  he  had  never  exercised  faith  in  Jesus,  or 

An  era  in  nis  '  ' 

life.  submitted  his  will  to  God's  will.     But  God  had  chosen  him 

for  eminent  service,  and  summoned  him  now  to  a  new  course  of  life. 
He  describes  the  change  :  "  I  had  never  for  a  single  day  in  my  life  laid 
aside  all  other  business,  and  earnestly  sought  of  God  the  renewing  in- 
fluences of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  resolved  that,  dismissing  every  other 
thought,  I  would  devote  one  day  to  reading  the  Scriptures  and  prayer, 
that  I  might  be  able  to  say  that  I  had  at  least  done  something  for  the 
salvation  of  my  soul. 

"  I  at  once  put  my  resolution  into  practice.  I  retired  to  my  chamber, 
and  spent  a  day  in  this  way.  I  perceived  very  little  change  in  my  feel- 
ings, save  that  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  matter  had  so  grown 
upon  me  that  I  resolved  to  spend  the  next  day  in  the  same  manner.  At 
the  end  of  the  second  day,  I  determined  to  spend  still  a  third  day  in  the 
same  employment ;  and  at  the  expiration  of  that  day,  I  determined  to 
do  nothing  else  until  I  had  secured  the  salvation  of  my  soul."  ^ 

With  the  entrance  on  the  Christian  life  came  a  change  of  profession. 
He  turned  from  medicine  to  theology,  feeling  that  God  called  him  to  the 
ministry  of  the  gospel.  In  the  following  autumn  he  entered  the  theo- 
logical seminary  at  Andover,  then  in  the  ninth  year  of  its  existence. 
Moses  Stuart,  the  most  learned  Biblical  scholar  in  the  country,  was  there, 
in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood,  inspiring  young  men  with  his  own  en- 
thusiasm. Young  "Wayland  soon  felt  the  power  of  this  great  teacher,  and 
was  aglow  with  zeal  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  He  spent  but  a 
single  year  at  Andover,  but  he  never  lost  the  imjDressions  received  under 
Professor  Stuart ;  and  at  the  semi-centennial  anniversary  of  the  sem- 
inary, in  1858,  he  paid  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  memory  of  his  early 
friend  and  instructor.     A  warm  friendship  continued  through  life. 

The  year  was  one  of  sore  pecuniary  trials.  The  father  had  just  lost 
both  his  property  and  his  pastorate,  and  could  afford  no  help.  There 
were  no  influential  friends  to  give  the  needed  aid,  and  educational  socie- 
ties were  not  yet  born  to  assist  the  deserving.  He  was  pinched  for 
money  to  buy  needed  books,  and  even  to  obtain  clothing  and  board  ;  and, 
though  eager  to  return  and  complete  his  course,  he  saw  no  way  of  meet- 
ing the  inevitable  expenses. 

With  great  reluctance  he  abandoned  theological  study  to  accept  an 
appointment  as  tutor  in  Union  College,  by  which  he  could  earn  his  daily 
bread.  It  was  a  good  position  for  mental  growth.  Daily  association 
with  Dr.  Nott  and  Dr.  Yates,  and  with  younger  men,  like  Wisner  and 
Potter  (afterwards  Dr.  Wisner  and  Bishop  Potter),  kept  him  at  his 
best,  while  the  broad  range  of  studies  he  was  obliged  to  teach  compelled 
incessant  toil.     He  always  looked  on  the  four  years  spent  at  Union  as 

1  Life  and  Labors,  vol.  i.,  p.  51. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        FRANCIS  WAYLAND.  689 

of  great  service  to  him  intellectually,  and  spiritually  as  well ;  for  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  period  he  was  brought  into  intimate  relations  with 
Dr.  Nettleton,  the  famous  evangelist,  and  received  a  new  unction  for  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  He  began  to  preach  occasionally  in  destitute 
neighborhoods  ;  and  it  may  encourage  young  men  to  know  that  the  ser- 
mons cost  him  prodigious  toil.  "  It  took  me  weeks  —  I  know  not  but  I 
might  say  months  —  to  write  a  discourse  of  moderate  length.  I  wrote 
and  rewrote  with  endless  care  and  anxiety.  How  men  prepared  two 
sermons  a  week  I  could  not  conceive." 

In  1821  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church,  Boston,  and  began  his  labors  in  that  city  in  August  ^  pastor  in  Bos- 
of  the  same  year.  Few  ministers  in  this  day  would  dare  *°''- 
accept  such  a  call  from  a  divided  church.  The  vote  stood  in  the  church 
fifteen  to  ten,  and  in  the  society  seventeen  to  fifteen.  A  strong  minority, 
favoring  a  candidate  of  more  popular  gifts,  but  of  slender  intellectual 
furniture,  determined  to  annoy  him  and  drive  him  from  the  pulpit.  But 
his  unaffected  humility  and  large  charity,  combined  with  a  rare  tact, 
soon  made  them  ashamed  of  their  unworthy  aims,  and  converted  many 
of  them  into  warm  friends.  For  more  than  five  years  he  remained  in 
Boston,  quietly  and  faithfully  doing  his  work  as  preacher  and  pastor ; 
loathing  all  display,  courting  no  popularity,  but  gradually  winning  the 
ear  of  the  public  as  one  of  the  profound  thinkers  and  great  teachers  of 
the  American  pulpit.  His  sermon  on  the  "  Moral  Dignity  of  the  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,"  preached  in  October,  1823,  and  soon  after  published, 
placed  him  at  once  among  the  foremost  American  preachers,  and  made 
his  name  familiar  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Successive  sermons, 
also  published,  on  the  "  Duties  of  an  American  Citizen "  and  on  the 
"Death  of  Ex-Presidents  Adams  and  Jefferson,"  added  to  his  reputa- 
tion, and  convinced  the  public  that  a  young  man  of  rare  originality  and 
force  was  coming  to  the  front  in  Boston,  to  whom  the  world  would  do 
well  to  listen.  Had  he  remained  in  the  pulpit  for  life  his  name  might, 
perhaps,  stand  at  the  head  of  American  preachers.  It  would  be  hard, 
at  least,  to  find  four  sermons  from  any  other  preacher,  under  thirty 
years  of  age,  worthy  to  be  compared  with  those  mentioned  in  breadth 
and  grandeur  of  thought  and  in  simple  majesty  of  style.  They  will 
long  hold  their  place  among  the  classics  of  the  American  pulpit. 

One  almost  regrets  that  he  did  not  continue  in  the  calling  he  was  so 
well  fitted  to  adorn,  recalling  the  criticism  of  Robert  Hall  on  his  mis- 
sionary sermon  :  "  If  he  can  preach  such  a  sermon  at  twenty-seven,  what 
will  he  do  at  fifty?"     But  in  1827  he  accepted  the  presi- 

c   1-1  TT    •  •  T     ^         •  PI-  IT    Over  the  univer- 

dency  of  Brown   University,  and  the  vigor  of  Ins  manhood   sityatProvi- 

d6UC6> 

and  the  ripeness  of  his  attainments  were  given  to  the  cause 
of  Christian  education.    The  fortunes  of  the  college  were  at  a  low  ebb.    It 
had  lost,  in  a  large  measure,  the  confidence  of  the  Baptist  denomination, 
44 


690  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

which  was  its  chief  patron.  Discipline  was  neglected ;  a  love  of  sports 
superseded  the  love  of  study ;  and  the  college  was  deficient  alike  in  phil- 
osophical apparatus,  in  library,  and  in  endowments.  It  was  soon  evi- 
dent that  the  corporation  had  made  a  wise  choice  of  a  leader.  A  new 
life  and  energy  pervaded  the  college.  Disorderly  students  felt  the  strong 
hand  of  a  master,  and  submitted  to  the  new  discipline.  Sluggish  minds 
caught  the  spirit  of  an  earnest  teacher,  and  lovers  of  study  were  stirred 
to  an  intense  enthusiasm.  The  young  j^resident  jjut  equal  vigor  into 
instruction  and  administration.  No  droning  was  tolerated  in  the  recita- 
tion room,  and  no  mischievous  pranks  went  undetected  or  unpunished. 
His  keen  eye  and  firm  hand  were  everywhere,  and  Brown  University 
under  Wayland  passed  through  changes  as  rapid  and  marked  as  Rugby 
under  Arnold.  The  citizens  of  Providence  and  the  friends  of  the  college 
welcomed  the  revolution,  and  responded  cordially  to  the  calls  of  the  pres- 
ident for  funds  to  carry  out  his  broad  views  of  education.  New  buUdr 
ings  were  erected  ;  a  moderate  endowment  was  raised ;  ample  apparatus 
was  furnished  for  instruction  in  chemistry  and  natural  philosophy  ;  and  a 
liberal  fund  was  obtained  for  the  enlargement  of  the  library.  The  col- 
lege took  its  place  among  the  best  institutions  of  the  country,  and  its 
president  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  great  educators  of  the  age. 

The  early  years  of  the  presidency  were  years  of  intense  mental  toil. 
A  singleness  of  purpose  governed  his  entire  life.  He  indulged  in  no  recre- 
ation, even  in  vacations,  nor  even  in  a  wide  course  of  liberal  studies.  He 
aimed  simply  to  become  master  of  the  studies  in  his  own  department ;  to  ac- 
quire eminent  power  as  an  instructor  ;  to  make  the  college  worthy  of  public 
confidence,  and  a  place  of  thorough  intellectual  discipline  for  its  students. 
His  lectm-e-room  was  a  throne,  where  he  ruled  with  an  imperial  majesty 
iby  divine  right.  Socrates  wielded  no  higher  power  over  the  young  men 
•of  Athens  than  Francis  "Wayland  over  the  senior  classes  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity. Many  men  of  eminence  in  the  state  and  in  liberal  professions 
trace  their  intellectual  birth  to  his  words,  and  his  eulogy  of  Dr.  Nott  is 
equally  true  of  himself:  "Attendance  on  his  instructions  formed  an  era 
in  the  life  of  every  one  of  his  pupils."  ^    His  own  enthusiasm  inspired  his 

1  On  Dr.  Wayland's  retirement  from  the  presidency,  Judge  B.  F.  Thomas,  of  Jlassachu- 
setts,  in  presenting  some  resolutions  of  the  alumni,  paid  to  his  former  teacher  the  following 
tribute :  — 

"  It  has  been  my  privilege  for  three  years  to  be  your  pupil.  I  have  seen  and  have  had 
•  other  eminent  masters  :  Joseph  Story,  whose  name  is  identified  with  the  jurisprudence  of 
his  country  ;  John  Hooker  Ashman,  who,  an  invalid  for  vears,  and  dying  at  the  early  age 
of  thirty-three,  left  behind  him  no  superior  in  Massachusetts,  whose  mind  had  the  point  of 
a  diamond,  and  the  clearness  of  its  waters;  Pliny  Merrick,  who  graces  the  bench  on  which 
I  have  the  honor  to  sit,  but  of  whom  my  near  relation  forbids  me  to  speak  as  I  would.  A 
quarter  of  a  century  has  passed  since  I  left  these  walls  with  j'our  blessing.  I  have  seen 
somelliing  of  men  and  of  the  world  since.  I  esteem  it,  to-day,  the  happiest  event  of  my 
life  that  brougiit  me  here  ;  the  best  gift  of  an  ever  kind  Providence  to  me  that  I  was  per- 
mitted for  three  years  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  }'our  instruction.  If  I  have  acquired  any  consid- 
eration in  my  own  beloved  commonwealth,  if  I  have  worthily  won  any  honor.  I  can  and 
do,  with  a  grateful  heart,  bring  them  to-day  and  lay  them  at  your  feet.  Ttucro  dace  et 
<Misj)ice  Ttuci'o.^' 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        FRANCIS  WAYLAND.  691 

associates  in  the  faculty,  and  they  emulated  him  in  zeal,  and  adopted  his 
motto  that  the  only  road  to  success  lies  through  every  day's  hard  work. 

His  experience  in  teaching  soon  created  discontent  with  the  text-books 
in  use,  and  compelled  the  attempt  to  supply  others  of  better  quality. 
His  works  on  moral  philosophy  and  political  economy  were  welcomed  by 
instructors  as  model  text-books,  and  still  hold  their  place  in  many  col- 
leges after  a  period  of  forty  years. 

As  he  acquired  a  conscious  mastery  of  college  duties,  the  energy  of  his 
nature  asserted  itself  in  important  labors  for  the  improvement  of  the 
city  and  State  which  had  become  his  home.  He  did  much  philanthropic 
to  re-organize  the  system  of  public  education,  to  establish  ■'^°'"'^- 
the  Providence  Athenteum  and  many  noble  institutions  of  benevolence, 
and  to  carry  into  effect  reforms  in  prison  discipline.  He  taught  a  Bible- 
class  in  the  First  Baptist  Church  on  Saturday  afternoons,  for  the  ladies 
of  the  city  from  all  denominations.  He  had  a  similar  class  at  his  own 
house  one  evening  in  the  week,  to  discuss  personal  difficulties  in  relig- 
ious matters.  One  of  his  class  gives  a  striking  testimony  to  the  fidelity 
of  his  instructions,  and  to  his  great  power  over  young  women,  by  affirm- 
ing that  many  members  of  the  class  were  belles  in  the  city,  belonging  to 
wealthy  and  fashionable  families,  but  they  resolutely  excluded  dancing 
from  their  evening  companies.  He  was  profoundly  interested  in  a  class 
in  the  state-prison,  teaching  it  for  many  years,  and  making  it  a  fountain 
of  spiritual  life  to  wretched  convicts.  He  came  gradually  to  be  regarded 
as  the  first  citizen  in  Rhode  Island,  whose  counsel  was  to  be  sought  for 
every  public  enterprise,  whose  sympathy  could  be  relied  on  in  every  phil- 
anthropic movement.  Nor  were  his  labors  confined  to  his  own  State. 
He  was  a  trusted  leader  in  the  missionary  societies  of  his  own  denomina- 
tion, and  a  counselor  whose  advice  and  help  were  sought  by  educational 
and  scientific  and  benevolent  institutions  in  all  portions  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1840,  when  in  his  forty-fifth  year,  he  went  abroad  for  a  few  months 
of  rest  and  travel.  This  tour  brought  into  prominence  two  traits  of 
his  character:  the  one  an  incapacity  for  rest;  the  other  an  intense  love 
for  his  native  country.  He  did  not  enjoy  foreign  travel,  though  it  gave 
him  an  opportmiity  for  familiar  intercourse  with  distinguished  men,  who 
welcomed  him  as  an  honored  guest.  His  heart  turned  with  eager  long- 
ing to  the  home  he  had  left,  the  friends  endeared  by  long  association, 
and  the  chosen  work  of  his  life.  Nor  could  he  content  himself  with 
repose  or  recreation.  His  mind  was  incessantly  busy,  reviewing  the 
past  to  discover  its  failures  by  the  new  views  oi^ened  in  Europe  ;  plan- 
ning for  the  future  to  do  wiser  and  more  effective  work.  This  constant 
study  abroad  led  to  the  publication,  in  1842,  of  a  little  volume  entitled 
"  Thoughts  on  the  Present  Collegiate  System  in  the  United  States,"  in 
which  he  gave  utterance  to  new  opinions  which  he  had  adopted  on  the 


692         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

need  of  a  radical  reform  in  the  curriculum  of  study,  to  adapt  it  to  the 
practical  wants  of  a  vigorous  nation. 

The  views  thus  early  expressed  took  definite  shape  in  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  college  in  1850.  In  a  report  to  the  corporation  he  gave  a 
clear  statement  of  the  changes  he  thought  needful,  and  received  both 
the  authority  and  the  means  to  carry  them  into  effect.  It  is  simple  jus- 
Leader  in  col-  ^^^®  ^^  ^^^  memory  to  Say  that  the  special  lines  of  study 
lege  reforms.  [^  scicnce  and  the  arts  now  established  in  the  leading  col- 
leges of  the  country  are  due,  in  a  large  measure,  to  the  suggestions  of 
Dr.  Wayland  in  this  report  to  the  corporation,  and  to  the  changes  intro- 
duced'Into  Brown  University.  To  him  belongs  the  honor  of  remodeling 
collegiate  education,  and  adapting  it  to  the  practical  needs  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

The  prodigious  amount  of  labor  required  to  introduce  the  new  system, 
and  the  pressure  of  responsibility  in  insuring  its  success,  proved  too 
great  a  strain  on  the  constitution  of  Dr.  Wayland,  already  worn  by  over- 
work, and  his  physician  enjoined  the  necessity  of  rest.  In  1855  he  ten- 
dered his  resignation  as  president,  which  was  accepted  with  great  reluc- 
tance by  the  corporation.  He  retired  to  a  new  and  beautiful  home  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  near  the  bank  of  the  Blackstone,  where  he 
intended  to  spend  the  evening  of  his  days  in  quiet,  devoting  his  leisure 
to  such  literary  religious  work  as  Providence  might  bring  to  his  hands. 
He  could  not  be  idle,  and  several  published  works  belong  to  this  period 
of  his  life.  "  The  Apostolic  Ministry,"  a  sermon  preached  at  Roches- 
ter, made  a  profound  impression  by  its  criticisms  on  the  current  style  of 
preaching,  and  excited  a  sharp  controversy.  A  similar  result  followed 
a  little  volume  entitled  "  Notes  on  the  Principles  and  Practices  of  Bap- 
tist Churches,"  in  which  he  expressed  views  differing  from  those  of  many 
of  his  brethren.  "  Sermons  to  the  Churches  "  were  rich  in  wise  counsels 
and  practical  lessons  ;  and  in  "  Salvation  by  Christ  "  he  put  into  perma- 
nent form  some  of  his  sermons  notable  for  simplicity  of  style  and  richness 
of  thought.  A  brief  "  Life  of  Dr.  Chalmers  "  laid  special  emjjhasis  on 
the  single-mindedness  of  the  great  preacher,  and  his  pastoral  fidelity  in 
laboring  for  the  salvation  of  souls. 

In  1857,  Dr.  Granger,  the  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Prov- 
idence, died ;  and  the  church  invited  Dr.  Wayland  to  perform  pasto- 
ral service  until  a  permanent  pastor  could  be  obtained.  He  accepted 
the  invitation,  regarding  it  as  a  providential  call  to  illustrate  in  practice 
the  views  of  preaching  and  pastoral  work  which  he  had  recently  de- 
veloped in  theory,  and  which  liad  given  offense  to  some  of  his  breth- 
ren.    For   sixteen   months   he   filled  the  office,  and  it  is 

A  model  pastor. 

not  extravagant  to  say  that  in  no  pulpit  in  the  country  was 
the  truth  preached  with  more  simplicity  and  directness,  and  in  no  parish 
was  pastoral  labor  done  with  more  systematic  fidelity,  and  with  more 


Cent.  XVir.-XIX.]        FRANCIS  WAYLAND.  693 

singleness  of  desire  to  save  men.  History  can  hardly  furnish  a  finer 
illustration  of  the  morally  sublime  than  the  devotion  of  this  great  man 
to  liis  accepted  work.  With  a  stern  self-denial,  born  of  conscientious 
conviction,  he  crucified  his  literary  tastes  in  the  pulpit,  laid  on  the  shelf 
all  his  elaborate  sermons,  and  aimed  to  preach  so  simply-  that  children 
could  not  fail  to  understand  the  truth,  and  so  j^ungently  that  every 
hearer  should  feel  a  personal  need  of  salvation.  He  alludes  to  this 
victory  over  himself :  "  I  had  held  some  important  offices  of  a  literary 
character.  I  ha'd  published  some  things  which  were  more  than  usually 
successful.  I  had  had  some  reputation  as  a  good  writer.  All  these  antece- 
dents would  seem  to  point  to  a  mode  of  preaching  in  harmony  with  them. 
I  could  not  but  feel  that  to  preach  otherwise  would  appear  to  many  a 
falling  oflf,  a  sinking  away ;  that  it  would,  in  a  word,  induce  many  per- 
sons to  think  less  of  me."  The  self-crucifixion  was  heroic  and  com- 
plete. In  the  sixteen  months  of  service  he  attempted  to  preach  no  great 
sermons,  but  only  those  fitted  to  do  immediate  good. 

The  self-denial  in  pastoral  work  was  more  sublime.  It  is  affecting  to 
read,  in  the  "  Life  of  James  Hamilton,"  of  his  cheerful  surrender  of  liter- 
ary ambition  to  his  duty  as  pastor.  He  had  collected  ample  material  for 
a  Life  of  Erasmus.  He  was  familiar  with  the  times,  with  the  men  and  the 
movements  of  that  stirring  period,  and  longed  to  put  into  permanent  form 
the  studies  of  a  life-time.  But  the  routine  of  parish  life,  apparently  trivial, 
absorbed  his  energy,  —  calling  on  old  women  to  comfort  them,  meeting  his 
elders  for  humdrum  talk.  He  weighed  the  matter  in  the  scales  of  con- 
science. The  routine  was  accepted,  and,  with  a  single  sigh,  the  precious 
manuscripts  were  laid  on  a  shelf,  never  to  be  taken  down  again.  Dr. 
Wayland's  sacrifice  was  more  complete.  "  The  moment  I  assumed  the 
duties  of  pastor  I  relinquished  every  other  engagement  and  occupation.  I 
laid  away  my  manuscripts,  put  aside  all  labor  for  myself,  and  devoted  my- 
self to  the  service  of  the  gospel."  His  son  adds  the  comment,  "  Not 
only  did  he  give  up  all  authorship  ;  he  relinquished  all  reading.  He  did 
not,  we  believe,  even  read  a  review  during  the  period  of  his  pastoral  la- 
bors. He  employed  in  studying  the  Bible  and  in  prayer  all  the  time 
not  consumed  in  needful  exercise,  in  prej^aration  for  the  Sabbath,  or  in 
visiting  the  congregation." 

He  visited  the  entire  parish  during  his  brief  term  of  service,  and  this 
involved  prodigious  labor.  His  own  home  was  at  one  extreme  of  the 
city,  far  removed  from  the  larger  part  of  the  congregation.  He  was 
now  past  sixty  years  of  age,  with  physical  energy  impaired  by  long  and 
severe  mental  toil.  The  parish  being  an  old  one,  the  people  were  scat- 
tered in  all  parts  of  the  city.  It  required  great  diligence  to  find  them, 
and  long  walks  to  reach  them.  He  went  always  on  foot,  fearing  that 
some  of  the  poor  would  take  offense  at  a  pastor  visiting  in  a  carriage, 
and  spiritual  good  would  be  liindered.     Day  by  day  he  threaded  the 


694  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

streets  of  Providence,  and  climbed  its  high  hills,  to  find  the  scattered 
sheep  of  his  flock,  and  to  bring  in  tender  lambs  into  the  fold.  Begin- 
ning his  visits  in  the  later  houi-s  of  the  forenoon,  when  morning  work 
might  be  finished,  he  continued  them  till  evening,  often  reaching  his 
home  again  only  when  an  evening  meeting  was  ended,  and  not  always 
partaking  of  regular  meals.  As  he  did  not  find  the  male  members  of 
families  at  their  homes,  he  sought  them  at  factories  and  stores  and  offices, 
determined  that  no  one  should  be  overlooked.  He  resolved  to  visit  no 
house  without  introducing  the  subject  of  religion  as  a  personal  matter, 
and  that  in  every  case,  unless  it  was  manifestly  best  to  omit  it,  he  would 
pray  with  the  family.  He  held  personal  religious  conversation  with 
nearly  every  member  of  the  parish,  finding  many  who  confessed  that  no 
one  had  ever  before  talked  with  them  directly  on  their  spiritual  needs. 

Such  systematic  and  earnest  labor  could  not  fail  of  results.  The  con- 
gregation increased  on  the  Sabbath  ;  the  lecture-room  was  often  crowded 
during  the  week ;  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church  was  quickened,  and 
many  converts  were  gathered.  The  revival  was  neither  so  extensive  nor 
so  fruitful  as  he  had  hoped  to  see  it,  but  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  at 
least  seventy  in  his  own  parish  began  a  Christian  life,  while  many  in 
other  congregations  were  led  to  Christian  character  by  his  earnest  words. 
These  sixteen  months  always  lingered  in  his  memory  as  the  pleasantest 
part  of  his  ministry. 

Refusing  an  earnest  call  from  the  church  to  become  a  permanent 
pastor,  from  a  conviction  of  inability  to  fulfill  the  duties,  he  retired  again 
to  private  life.  A  delightful  kind  of  recreation  was  found  in  his  garden, 
which  became  famous  in  Providence  for  its  extreme  neatness,  and  for 
the  choicest  flowers  and  fruits.  In  it  he  spent  several  hours  each  day, 
with  the  same  energy  and  enthusiasm  which  were  given  to  brain  work 
in  the  study.  He  took  great  pleasure  in  showing  the  garden  to  visitors, 
and  in  sending  specimens  of  its  fruits  and  flowers  to  friends. 

It  was  perhaps  an  inevitable  penalty  of  retirement  from  public  duties 
that  his  spirits  drooped,  and  he  became  more  familiar  with  clouds  than 
sunshine  in  his  closing  years.  In  middle  life,  when  brain  and  heart  were 
at  highest  tension,  and  each  day  was  crowded  with  public  duties,  his 
cheerfulness  was  electric,  and  misanthropes  and  Cassandras  went  from 
his  presence  constrained  to  take  more  cheerful  views  of  life  and  of  hu- 
man progress.  But  when  the  pressure  of  public  duty  relaxed,  and  the 
mental  powers,  relievetl  from  the  long  strain,  brooded  in  meditation  in- 
stead of  working  for  practical  results,  a  curious  morbidness  colored  the 
old  views  of  life,  and  his  familiar  talks  with  friends  were  generally  in  a 
minor  key.  Like  the  Grecian  Nestor,  he  deplored  the  growing  degen- 
eracy of  the  age.  He  could  see  few  signs  of  advance,  many  of  retro- 
gression, a  decaying  piety  in  the  churches,  a  loss  of  fidelity  and  earnest- 
ness in  the  pulpit,  and  a  decline  of  moral  vigor  in  college  faculties  and 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        FRANCIS  WAYLAND.  695 

students.  John  the  Baptist,  in  his  prison  cell,  cut  off  from  active  labor, 
lost  faith  in  the  Messianic  work  of  Jesus.  And  it  is  not  surprising  that 
,  Francis  Wayland,  in  the  mental  reaction  consequent  upon  a  life  of  lei- 
sure after  intense  toil,  looked  often  on  the  darker  side  of  tilings,  and  was 
tortured  with  doubts  if  the  Messianic  kingdom  was  making  progress 
among  men.  Nor  is  it  improbable  that  fatal  disease  had  already  begun 
its  work  by  clouding  the  intellect  and  benumbing  the  heart.  Declining 
health  and  anxieties  incident  to  the  long  civil  strife  might  naturally 
create  gloom  and  forebodings  even  in  a  hopeful  mind. 

But  personal  piety  ripened,  and  made  his  home  radiant  with  Christian 
peace,  when  clouds  obscured  the  spiritual  horizon  without.  As  he  drew 
near  to  the  end  of  life,  his  love  for  the  Bible  deepened,  and  prayer  be- 
came more  real  and  helpful.  He  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  I  have  lately  read 
the  Bible  more  than  ever  in  my  life,  in  the  same  space  of  time,  and  at 
every  new  reading  I  find  more  to  love  and  admire."  The  hour  before 
breakfast  was  always  given  to  secret  prayer  and  reading  the  Scriptures. 
During  this  hour  he  read  the  Bible  for  devotion,  not  at  all  for  criticism. 
The  day  closed,  as  it  had  begun,  with  communion  with  God.  "  After 
family  prayers,"  writes  his  son,  "  were  his  own  devotions,  and  those  who 
occupied  the  room  above  the  study  heard  his  voice  last  at  night,  as  it 
had  been  the  first  sound  in  the  morning."  A  young  friend  asked  him, 
"  Can  you  always  feel,  when  you  pray,  that  prayer  is  a  reality  ?  "  His 
answer  was  prompt :  "  Almost  always  I  can  ;  and  the  older  I  grow,  the 
more  fully  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  a  real  thing  to  ask  God  for  bless- 
ings, and  to  receive  them  in  answer  to  prayer." 

The  civil  war  caused  him  many  hours  of  gloom.  He  saw  in  it  the 
divine  retribution  for  national  sins,  and  bowed  meekly  to  faithful  to  the 
the  stroke,  choosing  rather  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  God  ®"'^- 
than  into  the  hands  of  man.  But  in  the  darkest  hours  of  national  ca- 
lamity, when  the  hopes  of  leaders  drooped,  he  never  doubted  the  final 
issue.  His  faith  was  unfaltering  that  slavery  would  be  overthrown,  and 
justice  and  freedom  would  triumph.  His  voice  and  pen  responded  freely 
to  his  country's  call;  his  counsels  inspired  the  wavering,  and  his  courage 
kindled  new  hopes  in  the  desponding. 

The  assassination  of  President  Lincoln  brought  him  once  more  before 
the  23ublic,  and  furnished  a  striking  proof  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  by  his  fellow-citizens.  When  the  sad  news  reached  Providence,  a 
general  wish  was  expressed  that  Dr.  Wayland  .might  appear  in  some 
church  or  public  hall,  and  give  counsel  suited  to  the  solemn  hour.  A 
delegation  of  leading  men  conveyed  to  him  the  public  wish.  He  de- 
clined the  task,  but  consented  to  address  in  a  quiet  way  any  friends 
who  would  gather  at  his  house  towards  evening.  The  afternoon  closed 
with  a  heavy  rain,  and  no  public  notice  had  been  given  of  the  projjosed 
service ;  but  a  company  of  fifteen  hundred  men,   comprising  the  first 


696  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

citizens  of  Providence,  gathered  at  even-tide,  and  marclaed  in  procession 
more  than  a  mile  through  the  falling  rain,  to  stand  in  close  ranks  before 
his  dwelling.  Raised  upon  a  rude  platform,  hastily  erected,  Dr.  Way- 
land  talked  to  his  fellow-townsmen  in  a  strain  of  dignified  eloquence 
never  surpassed  in  his  hest  days.  The  virtues  of  the  martyred  presi- 
dent, the  atrocious  crime,  the  cloud  overshadowing  the  country,  and  the 
delicate  tribute  of  his  neighbors  stirred  mind  and  heart  to  highest  activ- 
ity, and  the  crowd  retired  awed  to  reverent  silence  by  the  grandeur  of 
the  man  no  less  than  by  the  grandeur  of  his  words.  It  was  a  fit  per- 
oration to  his  long  life  of  public  service. 

A  few  months  later,  in  a  less  public  manner,  he  uttered  his  last  relig- 
ious counsels.  The  Warren  Association,  with  which  he  had  been  con- 
nected for  nearly  forty  years,  met  on  September  13th  and  14th,  in  the 
Central  Baptist  Church,  Providence.  The  jiastor  had  sent  him  a  special 
request  to  be  present,  and,  though  the  church  was  two  miles  from  his 
home,  he  attended  promptly  every  service,  excepting  that  of  Wednesday 
evening.  On  Thursday  afternoon  he  took  part  in  the  conference 
meeting,  with  which  the  association  closed,  and  no  one  who  was  present 
can  ever  forget  the  solemnity  of  his  words,  or  the  tender  earnestness  of 
his  appeals.  He  spoke  as  if  already  loosed  from  this  world,  and  await- 
ing the  svimmons  to  a  better  life.  Many  listened  tearfully,  with  a 
foreboding  that  they  should  never  hear  his  voice  again.  On  Friday  of 
the  following  week  he  felt  strangely  listless,  and  on  Saturday  did  not 
leave  his  bed.  On  the  next  Tuesday  the  stroke  of  paralysis,  long 
gathering,  suddenly  fell.  He  lost  the  power  of  motion,  and  articulation 
became  difficult.  The  disease  could  not  be  arrested,  and  on  Saturday 
evening,  September  30,  1865,  after  some  days  of  unconsciousness,  the 
end  came. 

During  the  week  of  sickness  a  general  anxiety  had  pervaded'  the  city. 
The  inquiry  was  on  hundreds  of  lips  every  day,  "How  is  Dr.  Wayland?" 
And  when  the  tolling  bell  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  announced,  on 
Sunday  morning,  that  the  struggle  was  over,  the  grief  was  universal,  for 
all  felt  that  Providence  and  Rhode  Island  had  lost  their  greatest 
citizen. 

An  immense  crowd  gathered  at  the  First  Baptist  Church  on  Wednes- 
day, October  4th,  to  look  on  his  lifeless  face  and  follow  him  to  burial. 
The  large  edifice  could  not  hold  the  company  of  mourners.  Clergymen 
from  other  States  and  from  other  denominations,  statesmen,  educators, 
authors,  and  personal  friends  in  all  walks  of  life  united  in  a  tribute  of 
loving  homage.  Dr.  Caswell,  an  associate  and  friend  of  forty  years, 
made  an  address,  simple  but  beautiful ;  and  Dr.  Caldwell,  his  pastor,  and 
Dr.  Swain,  a  Congregational  clergyman,  conducted  the  devotional  serv- 
ices. 

A  year  later,  at  the  commencement  of  Brown  University,  September 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  RICHARD  FULLER.  697 

4,  1866,  Professor  Chace,  one  of  the  earliest  graduates  under  Wajland's 
administration,  and  for  many  years  a  colleague  in  instruction,  delivered 
a  memorial  discourse  to  the  alumni  of  the  college.  It  was  a  worthy 
tribute  to  the  great  teacher,  whom  all  his  pupils  revered,  and  to  the  great 
man,  whom  they  all  loved.  —  H.  L. 


LIFE  XXL     RICHARD  FULLER. 

A.  D.  1804-A.  D.  1876.      BAPTIST,  —  AMERICA. 

Many  men  are  good ;  few  are  great,  and  they  are  great  only  in  a  com- 
parative sense.  Human  greatness  is  the  i-esult  of  vast  intellectual  en- 
dowments, large  educational  advantages,  close  application  to  study,  and 
wide  opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  talents.  The  lack  of  any  one  of 
these  elements  of  greatness,  though  it  may  not  preclude  eminent  useful- 
ness and  honorable  distinction,  will  prevent  those  high  attainments  which 
dignify  the  leaders  of  human  thought  and  win  the  admiration  of  intel- 
ligent and  discriminating  observers. 

Richard  Fuller,  the  subject  of  this  story,  was  a  great  as  well  as  good 
man.  He  was  descended  of  a  highly  respectable  family  of  the  State  of 
South  Carolina,  noted  for  the  number  of  able  and  distinguished  men 
born  within  its  limits.  His  birth  occurred  in  the  town  of  Beaufort,  on 
the  22d  of  April,  1804.  It  was  his  good  fortune  to  receive  his  early  in- 
struction from  that  ripe  scholar  and  eloquent  preacher,  the  elder  Dr. 
William  T.  Brantly,  equally  well  known  and  esteemed  in  the  South  and 
in  the  North.  In  the  seventeenth  year  of  his  age,  young  Fuller,  having 
mastered  his  preparatory  studies,  entered  Harvard  University,  Massa- 
chusetts, soon  proving  himself  to  be  one  of  the  best  scholars  of  his  class. 
Fixing  his  ambitious  eye  on  the  highest  honors  of  the  institution,  he  re- 
solved, by  the  most  intense  application  to  study,  to  secure  them.  When 
they  seemed  to  be  almost  within  his  grasp,  he  was  seized  with  symptoms 
of  a  pulmonary  disease,  which  compelled  him  reluctantly  to  abandon  his 
studies,  and  betake  himself  to  the  use  of  means  for  the  recovery  of  his 
health.  So  satisfactory,  however,  had  been  his  progress  in  learning  that 
he  graduated  with  his  class  in  1824,  being  about  twenty  years  old. 

Fuller  had  chosen  the  profession  of  law,  for  which  his  genius  and  taste 
peculiarly  fitted  him.  Returning  to  his  native  town,  he  entered  at  once 
on  his  professional  career,  and  was  not  long  in  finding  clients.  At  a 
bar  whose  members  were  distinguished  for  their  legal  knowledge  and 
their  eloquence,  he  immediately,  by  the  force  of  his  genius,  placed  him- 
self in  the  front  rank  of  advocates.  He  soon  acquired  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice, and  the  richest  emoluments  and  the  highest  honors  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession were  spread  before  him. 


698  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

At  this  period  aa  event  occurred  deeply  affecting  the  after  life  of  the 
rising  barrister.  A  young  widow,  of  amiable  disposition,  refined  manners, 
and  excellent  judgment,  having  her  ample  estate  involved  in  litigation, 
employed  him  as  her  counsel.  He  not  only  vindicated  her  rights,  but 
won  her  heart,  secured  her  hand,  and  became  the  manager  of  her  val- 
uable property.  Mrs.  Fuller  survives  her  husband,  and  it  is  now  only 
proper  to  say  that  a  more  congenial  and  happy  union  was  never  formed. 
To  the  close  of  his  life,  on  all  suitable  occasions,  he  continued  to  speak 
of  her  in  terms  of  the  highest  commendation,  and  with  all  the  ardor  of 
a  young  lover. 

A  still  more  important  event  in  his  life  was  approaching.  Daniel 
Converted  under  Baker,  a  Presbyterian,  well  known  in  those  days  as  a  suc- 
Daniei  Baker.  cessful  evangelist,  held  a  series  of  meetings  in  Beaufort. 
Fuller  was  among  the  converts  on  the  occasion.  He  had  been  for  some 
time  nominally  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  making  no  profession 
of  piety.  Very  soon  after  his  conversion  he  was  baptized  by  the  Rev. 
Henry  0.  TVyer,  of  Savannah,  Georgia,  and  united  with  the  Baptist  church 
in  Beaufort,  of  which  his  parents  were  members.  His  conversion  and 
call  to  the  ministry  seem  to  have  been  simultaneous.  Immediately,  like 
converted  Saul,  he  "  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood,"  but  entered  on 
his  life-long  work  of  persuading  sinners  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  In  the 
year  1832  he  was  ordained  to  the  ministry,  and  became  the  pastor  of 
the  church  of  which  he  was  a  member.  The  general  truth  stated  by 
Jesus,  that  a  prophet  is  without  honor  in  his  own  country  and  among  his 
own  kindred,  was  signally  reversed  in  the  case  of  Fuller.  He  was  no- 
where more  admired,  more  loved,  or  more  useful  than  in  the  town  where 
he  drew  his  first  breath  and  engaged  in  his  boyish  sports.  Nor  did  he 
limit  his  labors  to  his  native  village,  but  preached  the  gospel  among  the 
slaves  of  the  cotton  plantations  on  the  sea-coast,  as  well  as  to  refined 
audiences  in  the  cities  and  towns  of  his  native  State  and  of  Georgia, 
everywhere  attracting  great  crowds,  who,  whether  they  were  rich  or 
poor,  learned  or  rude,  hung  with  equal  delight  and  profit  on  his  minis- 
trations. 

It  was  not  possible  that  so  bright  a  light  as  the  pastor  of  the  Beaufort 
Baptist  church  should  be  long  concealed.  The  time  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  his  powers  to  the  large  denomination  of  Christians  with  which 
he  was  connected  was  at  hand.  In  the  year  1841,  the  Baptist  Triennial 
Convention  of  the  United  States  was  held  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  It 
was  largely  attended  by  the  representative  men  of  the  churches.  Fuller 
had  been  appointed  at  the  previous  meeting  to  deliver  the  introductory 
sermon.  Few  persons  present  had  heard  him,  but  his  fame  had  preceded 
him,  and  the  congregation  was  on  tiptoe  to  hear  his  sermon.  His  text 
was,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me ;  " 
and  his  theme  was  "  The  Power  of  the  Cross."     It  was  heard  with  pro- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         RICHARD  FULLER.  699 

found  attention,  great  admiration,  and  intense  feeling.  I  afterwards 
heard  him  deliver  sermons  much  superior  to  it  in  richness  of  thought, 
genuine  pathos,  and  commanding  eloquence,  but  this  discourse  estab- 
lished his  pulpit  reputation,  and  gave  him  a  place  in  the  front  row  of 
American  Baptist  preachers. 

He  received  many  tempting  invitations  to  settle  with  wealthy  city 
churches  ;  but  as  salary  was  no  object  with  him,  and   he 

-,  ,  .  1         ^  ,  1   .  TmAs  in  Balti- 

greatly  loved  his  field  of  labor,  his  removal  seemed  improb-  more  his  life- 
able.  He  was  elected,  however,  to  the  pastorate  of  a  new 
church  (the  Seventh)  in  the  city  of  Baltimore ;  and  for  strong  and  pe- 
culiar reasons,  which  need  not  here  be  mentioned,  he  accepted  the  office, 
and  entered  on  its  duties,  in  a  new  and  spacious  building  which  had  been 
erected  for  his  reception,  in  August,  1847.  Here,  for  nearly  twenty-five 
years,  he  continued  his  earnest  and  faithful  ministry,  attracting  crowds  by 
his  eloquence,  adding  largely  to  the  membership  of  the  church,  and  ex- 
erting a  most  excellent  influence  in  the  rapidly  growing  city.  No  pastor 
was  more  loved  and  honored  by  his  flock  than  he.  He  commanded  their 
admiration  in  the  pulpit  by  the  splendor  of  his  gifts,  and  won  their 
hearts  in  private  by  the  gentleness  and  simplicity  of  his  manners. 

"In  the  spring  of  1871,"  says  Dr.  Brantly,  his  companion  in  labor 
and  life-long  friend,  "  a  handsome  marble  house  of  worship,  one  of  the 
ornaments  of  Baltimore,  was  completed  by  the  church  of  which  Dr. 
Fuller  was  pastor,  and  he  was  invited  to  take  charge  of  a  colony  of  some 
two  hundred  persons,  who  within  a  short  time  were  dismissed  from 
the  Seventh  Church  to  prosecute  the  new  enterprise.  According  to  our 
figures,  the  doctor  was  then  sixty-seven  years  of  age ;  and  it  would  or- 
dinarily have  been  a  hazardous  experiment  for  so  old  a  man  to  embark 
in  the  work  of  building  up  a  new  interest.  But  his  success  was  remark- 
able. The  congregations  were  at  once  large;  additions  by  experience  and 
letter  were  numerous  ;  so  that  in  the  few  years  that  elapsed  between  the 
dedication  of  the  house  and  the  death  of  the  pastor  the  number  of  mem- 
bers had  been  more  than  doubled,  and  the  indebtedness  of  the  church  fully 
provided  for." 

The  most  brilliant  life  must  end,  "  In  the  midst  of  his  usefulness 
and  vigor,  his  form  erect,  his  mental  vision  unobscured,  and  when  friends 
were  hoping  for  other  years  of  usefulness  in  addition  to  the  many  he  had 
lived,  a  malignant  carbuncle  appeared  on  his  right  shoulder,  detaining  him 
from  his  pulpit  and  confining  him  to  his  bed.  The  disease  progressed  so 
rapidly  that  in  a  short  time  his  medical  attendants  despaired  of  his  recov- 
ery. The  Christian  hero  promptly  accepted  the  providence  with  sub- 
mission, and  even  with  joy.  He  calmly  disposed  of  all  earthly  interests, 
then  dictated  a  letter  to  his  church,  assuring  them  of  his  '  perfect  peace 
in  Jesus,'  and  calling  upon  them  to  be  faithful  to  God  and  his  truth. 
Never  did  a  death-bed  afford  sublimer  illustration  of  the  power  of  the 


700  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [PKPaoD  V. 

gospel  to  sustain  the  soul  in  '  the  supreme  struggle,'  as  he  spoke  of  his 
last  moments  to  a  friend.  '  To  one,'  said  he,  '  in  my  situation,  the  most 
important  question  is.  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  The  world  does 
not  believe  that  he  will.  The  church  only  half  believes  it.  But  I  know 
it,  and  I  rejoice  in  it.  The  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  stamp 
eternal  verity  on  this  doctrine.  I  have  fought  a  good  fight ;  I  have  fin- 
ished my  course ;  and  there  is  a  crown  laid  up  for  me.'  Love  to  Christ 
was  the  ruling  passion  of  his  life,  and  it  was  the  dominant  passion  in  his 
dying  hour.  Knowing  that  his  tongue  would  soon  be  silent,  he  asked  in 
most  plaintive  tones  but  a  short  time  before  he  died,  '  Who  '11  preach 
Jesus  ?'  —  thus  indicating  his  concern  for  the  glory  of  his  ever-dear  Lord. 
He  died  on  Friday  morning,  October  20,  1876,  and  was  interred  by  the 
side  of  two  of  his  daughters,  in  Greeumount  Cemetery." 

"  Never,"  says  Dr.  Brantly,  "  have  I  seen  a  large  city  so  thoroughly 
moved  as  was  Baltimore  when,  last  fall,  it  was  announced  that  the  elo- 
quent and  beloved  Fuller  was  critically  ill.  And  when  it  was  under- 
stood that  he  was  no  more,  the  grief  was  profound  and  universal.  On 
the  day  of  his  interment  it  seemed,  such  was  the  thronging  on  every 
street  which  the  funeral  cortege  passed,  that  the  whole  community  had 
turned  out  to  offer  the  tribute  of  tears." 

Dr,  Fuller  was  a  remarkable  man,  and  would  have  been  so  considered 

His  personal  ap-  ^^  ^^J  ^§®'  ^^  ^^J  country,  and  in  any  department  of  human 
pearance.  ]ifg_      jjg  ^^g  gg^gj;  jj^  q^^q  q^  nature's  finest  moulds.     He 

had  "  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body."  No  one  saw  him  without  being 
impressed  by  his  appearance.  Tall,  well  proportioned,  vigorous,  and  com- 
manding in  person,  he  moved  as  a  prince  among  men.  His  open  coun- 
tenance, beaming  eyes,  and  pleasant  but  not  handsome  features  gave  in- 
dication of  the  noble  intellect  dwelling  within.  His  mind,  clear  and 
discriminating,  was  equally  original,  logical,  and  imaginative.  If  he  had 
not  genius,  which  too  frequently  shines  only  to  dazzle  and  mislead,  he 
bad  what  was  far  better,  masculine  sense,  a  well-balanced  intellect,  and 
a  ready  command  of  all  his  j^owers.  His  mind  and  body  were  well  fitted 
to  each  other,  constituting  him  a  man  thoroughly  developed,  and  suited 
for  arduous  labors,  physical  and  intellectual. 

Fuller  was  a  man  of  earnest  and  consistent  piety.  Converted  in  his 
maturity,  he  furnished,  by  the  abandonment  of  his  lucrative  profession, 
the  devotion  of  his  powers  to  the  ministry,  and  the  consecration  of  his 
ample  income  to  pious  purposes,  such  proofs  of  the  sincerity  of  his  love 
to  Christ  as  few  ministers  have  been  able  to  do.  None  doubted,  or  could 
doubt,  the  genuineness  of  his  conversion,  for  he  left  all  to  follow  Christ. 
His  piety  was  not  only  sincere,  but  consistent,  free  alike  from  asceticism 
and  from  levity,  from  bigotry  and  from  latitudinarianism.  Faith  was 
probably  the  most  prominent  trait  in  his  piety.  He  had  a  firm  and  un- 
wavering conviction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  which  did  not  fail  him 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         RICHARD  FULLER.  701 

iu  his  "  supreme  struggle."  His  humility  was  little  less  conspicuous  than 
his  ftiith.  With  greater  cause  for  self-exaltation  than  any  minister  I  have 
known,  he  continued  throughout  life  a  plain,  unostentatious  preacher, 
free  from  the  jealousy  and  envy  by  which  inferior  minds  are  so  often 
afflicted.  Prayer  was  the  natural  breathing  of  his  pious  heart.  At  any 
time  and  in  any  place,  when  circumstances  would  permit,  he  would  say, 
"  Let  us  pray ! "  and  his  prayers  were  usually  brief,  tender,  and  ear- 
nest. 

Fuller  would  have  attained  to  eminence  in  any  art,  science,  or  profes- 
sion that  called  for  the  exercise  of  a  clear  and  vigorous  intellect  and 
unwearied  industry.  He  was  an  excellent  writer,  considering  that  author- 
ship was  merely  incidental  to  his  profession.  Had  he  devoted  himself  to 
composition,  he  would  have  attained  to  distinction  and  enduring  fame. 
As  it  was,  he  reached  no  mean  rank  as  a  wi-iter.  His  published  sermons 
would  be  an  honor  to  any  pulpit,  in  any  age  and  in  any  country.  Many 
of  his  articles  in  the  "  Religious  Herald,"  of  which  he  was  an  associate 
editor,  were  rich  in  thought,  brilliant  in  illustration,  and  equally  graceful 
and  nervous  in  style.  His  controversy  with  Dr.  Wayland  on  the  subject 
of  slavery,  while  he  was  comparatively  young,  was  conducted  with  ad- 
mirable courtesy,  and  with  no  little  skill  and  vigor.  No  careful  reader 
of  the  discussion,  whatever  might  be  his  views  of  the  questions  at  issue, 
could  doubt  that  the  New  England  dialectician  found  in  the  Southern 
preacher  "  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel." 

It  was,  however,  as  a  speaker  rather  than  as  a  writer  that  Dr.  Fuller 
excelled.  Like  him  many  could  write,  but  like  him  few  g-j^  excellence 
could  speak.  He  had  rare  gifts  for  platform  speaking.  His  ^^  ^  preacher. 
addresses  were  remarkable  for  their  combination  of  argument,  illustration, 
pathos,  humor,  wit,  and  sarcasm,  delivered  with  inimitable  grace  and 
power.  It  was  equally  difficult  to  listen  to  his  best  strains  without  laugh- 
ter and  without  tears.  Some  of  his  speeches,  in  which  he  gave  free 
course  to  his  wit,  the  sallies  of  his  imagination,  and  the  glowing  bursts 
of  his  eloquence,  were  both  attractive  and  overwhelming.  Many  years 
ago,  he  spoke  at  an  anniversary  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  in 
Washington  city,  with  Clay  and  Webster;  and  the  preacher,  in  the  es- 
timation of  an  intelligent  hearer,  bore  away  the  palm  from  the  illustrious 
statesmen. 

In  the  pulpit,  not  on  the  platform.  Dr.  Fuller  gained  his  highest  repu- 
tation. The  pulpit  was  his  throne.  From  the  hour  of  his  entrance  on 
the  ministry  to  the  close  of  his  life,  he  was  wholly  consecrated  to  it. 
All  posts  of  honor  and  of  profit  deemed  suitable  for  ministers  were 
open  to  him.  His  extensive  learning,  his  resplendent  talents,  his  popular 
manners,  and  his  high  social  position  eminently  fitted  him  to  succeed  as 
a  professor  or  president  of  a  college,  or  as  a  lecturer  i-n  any  department 
of  art,  science,  or  philosophy,  or  indeed  in  any  employment  for  which 


702  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

knowledge,  judgment,  and  industry  were  required  ;  but,  like  the  late 
Dr.  Witt,  of  Virginia,  lie  was,  and  he  desired  to  be,  "  nothing  but  a 
preacher."  To  the  success  of  his  ministry  he  devoted  not  only  himself, 
with  all  his  powers  and  time,  but  his  wealth  also.  To  him  no  toil  and 
no  sacrifices  seemed  great,  if  they  but  secured  the  object  of  his  ministry, 
—  the  salvation  of  sinners. 

More  than  any  other  prominent  minister  I  have  known.  Dr.  Fuller 
confined  his  preaching  to  "  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  Others  might 
preach  science,  or  philosophy,  or  moral  reform,  or  politics,  or  introduce 
largely  into  their  discourses  sensational  topics ;  but  he  preached  Christ, 
only  Christ.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  his  sermons  were 
comprised  within  a  narrow  range.  To  him  the  theme  was  inexhaustible. 
Before  his  capacious  mind  it  spread  out  into  a  boundless  field  for  instruc- 
tion and  exhortation.  No  thirsty  sinner  ever  went  to  hear  him  without 
being  led  to  the  fountain  of  living  waters.  Whether  he  preached  to  a 
refined  and  fastidious  city  audience,  to  a  large  representative  assembly  of 
ministers  and  theologians,  or  to  the  illiterate  negroes  of  the  rice  planta- 
tions of  South  Carolina,  his  subject  was  the  same,  —  Christ,  the  only  and 
all-sufficient  Saviour  of  sinners.  No  doubt,  the  power,  influence,  and 
usefulness  of  his  ministry  were  greatly  increased  by  the  transcendent 
importance  of  the  topics  of  his  sermons. 

In  debate  or  in  counsel.  Fuller  might  have  been  equaled  or  excelled ; 
but  in  the  highest  order  of  pulpit  power,  he  had  no  peer  within  the  range 
of  my  observation,  and  that  has  been  extended  through  a  period  of  more 
than  half  a  century,  and  among  English-speaking  preachers  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.  He  had  a  rare  combination  of  pulpit  talents.  To  an 
imperial  presence  he  added  a  clear,  sonorous,  mellow,  flexible,  and  power- 
ful voice,  lively  and  tender  sensibilities,  a  mind  well  disciplined  and  richly 
stored  with  divine  truth,  a  perfect  command  of  language,  and  an  imper- 
turbable self-possession.  He  was  a  born  orator.  That  he  possessed  pul- 
pit power  in  an  extraordinary  degree  none  who  ever  heard  him  preach, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  will  question.  The  proofs  of  this  power 
were  seen  in  the  crowds,  of  all  classes  and  in  all  places,  that  attended  his 
ministry  ;  the  delight  with  which  they  heard  his  words  ;  the  deep,  tender, 
and  persuasive  impression  usually  made  by  his  sermons ;  the  multitudes 
converted,  edified,  and  comforted  by  his  ministrations  ;  and  the  churches 
founded  or  built  up  by  his  labors. 

I  attended  meetings  with  Fuller  in  the  South  and  in  the  North,  in  the 
East  and  in  the  West,  in  which  were  gathered  the  best  talent  of  the  de- 
nomination in  this  country,  with  distinguished  preachers  from  foreign 
lands,  and  I  recollect  not  a  single  instance  in  which  he  was  not,  by  com- 
mon consent,  appointed  to  fill  the  most  important  pulpit,  and  at  the  most 
important  time ;  and  rarely  did  he  fail  to  meet  the  excited  expectation  of 
his  crowded  audience. 


Cknt.  XVII.-XrX.]         RICHARD  FULLER.  703 

Of  all  sermon-writers,  ancient  or  modern,  James  Saurin,  pastor  of  the 
French  church  at  the  Hague,  was  one  of  the  most  profound  and  brilliant. 
He  was  evidently  Fuller's  model,  especially  in  his  early  ministry.  On 
hearing  him  frequently,  one  conversant  with  the  writings  of  Saurin  could 
not  fail  to  notice  the  striking  resemblances  between  their  discourses. 
Fuller  had  closely  studied  the  works  of  the  French  pastor,  and,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  had  imbibed  his  spirit  and  copied  his  style.  More 
than  twenty  years  ago,  I  heard  Fuller  preach  a  sermon  on  God's  Contro- 
versy with  his  People,  founded  on  Micah  vi.  2.  It  was  a  grand  effort. 
I  was,  however,  haunted  by  the  impression  that  it  was  substantially  a 
repetition  of  Sauriu's  sermon  on  the  same  subject.  On  returning  to  my 
library,  I  took  down  his  work  and  read  the  sermon.  It  is  one  of  the  finest 
productions  of  his  glowing  intellect.  It  was  evident  that  Fuller  had  read 
the  discourse,  and  was  indebted  to  it,  in  part,  for  the  plan  of  his  own  ;  but, 
while  the  subject  was  fresh  in  my  memory,  I  felt  convinced  that  the  Amer- 
ican had  excelled  the  French  preacher.  There  was  in  the  sermon  of 
Fuller  a  range  of  thought,  a  sublimity  in  description,  a  brilliancy  of  il- 
lustration, a  beauty  of  style,  and  a  pathos  in  expression  to  which  the 
masterly  discourse  of  the  pastor  at  the  Hague  —  at  least,  as  it  appears  in 
the  translation — could  not  lay  a  just  claim. 

Only  the  preaching  of  Jesus  was  faultless.  Dr.  Fuller,  in  his  best 
sermons,  often  overstepped  the  modesty  of  nature.  His  constant  aim  to 
be  imjDressive  led  him  occasionally  to  be  theatrical  and  extravagant  in 
manner  and  declamatory  in  style.  His  desire  for  immediate  results  some- 
times led  him  to  neglect  instruction  to  secure  efficiency ;  to  deal  less 
with  the  understanding  and  the  conscience,  and  more  with  the  sympa- 
thies and  the  passions,  than  was  demanded  to  secure  the  highest  meas- 
ure of  usefulness.  Still,  take  him  all  in  all,  he  was,  within  the  limits 
of  my  acquaintance,  if  not  unrivaled,  certainly  not  excelled,  in  pulpit 
power. 

This  portrait  will  be  ended  with  a  single  remark  :  Few  ministers  can 
reasonably  hope  to  rival  Dr.  Fuller  in  gifts  and  reputation,  but  all  may 
cherish  his  spirit,  follow  his  example,  preach  the  gospel  that  he  pro- 
claimed, honor  the  Master  that  he  served,  and  share  in  the  rewards  that 
he  sought  ;  and  let  them  remember  that  piety  is  better  than  talents, 
prayer  can  accomplish  more  than  eloquence,  and  diligence  can  outstrip 
genius.  —  J.  B.  J. 


704  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

LIFE   XXII.     TIMOTHY   D WIGHT. 

A.  D.  1752-A.  D.  1817.        CONGREGATIONAL,  —  AMERICA. 

Among  the  theologians  of  New  England  and  of  America  during  the 
period  which  extended,  over  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  and  the 
early  part  of  the  present  one,  no  man  was  more  eminent  than  President 
Dwight,  of  Yale  College.  A  grandson  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  he  inher- 
ited great  intellectual  power  and  a  tendency  towards  theological  study 
and  thought.  He  was  also  naturally  brought,  in  consequence  of  this  re- 
lationship, under  the  influence  of  the  philosophy  and  the  doctrinal  views 
of  Edwards.  But,  with  the  clearness  and  force  of  an  independent  mind, 
he  rose  above  mere  imitation,  and  became  a  teacher  who,  modifying  and 
advancing  the  system  of  his  master,  brought  a  new  inspiring  influence  to 
those  who  followed  him.  In  the  progress  of  thought  on  all  the  great 
subjects  within  the  field  of  Christian  truth,  from  the  beginning  of  our 
country's  history  until  now,  he  was,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  a  connecting  link, 
binding  the  jiast  and  the  jaresent.  He  was  also  a  grand  motive  power, 
impelling  earnest  scholars  to  press  forward  in  their  investigations,  and  to 
follow  boldly  and  freely  wherever  the  light  of  revelation  might  lead 
them. 

The  story  of  his  life,  like  that  of  all  men  who  find  their  home  in  a 
university,  is  mainly  a  narrative  of  a  thoughtful,  earnest  working  for  the 
truth.  But  his  great  executive  ability,  his  large-minded  interest  in  all 
that  was  good,  his  magnetic  influences  upon  those  around  him,  his  far- 
seeing  outlook  into  the  future,  made  him  a  constant  energizing  force  in 
public  life ;  so  that  scarcely  any  man  in  America  has  ever  had  a  wider 
fame  or  a  more  commanding  personal  power. 

He  was  born  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  May  14,  1752,  where 
Grandson  of  ^"^  father  was  a  prominent  citizen,  and  where  his  maternal 
Edwards.  grandfather,  Edwards,  had,  until  within  a  short  time,  been  a 

pastor  and  religious  teacher  of  the  church.  By  descent  he  was  connected 
with  some  of  the  noblest  families  in  the  laud,  —  the  Hookers  and  Stod- 
dards  and  Winthrops, — as  well  as  with  the  two  of  which  he  was  the  im- 
mediate offspring.  He  was  the  heir  of  both  intellectual  and  moral  power 
of  a  high  order,  and  was  gifted  by  nature  with  a  large  mind  and  with  a 
large  heart.  From  his  earliest  years  he  exhibited  extraordinary  qualities. 
His  memory  was  remarkable.  He  is  said  to  have  learned  to  read  before 
he  was  four  years  of  age.  In  his  early  boyhood  he  became  an  attentive 
reader  of  books.  Treasuring  his  knowledge  thus  gained,  and  being  inquisi- 
tive, with  the  eagerness  of  a  wakeful  and  open  mind,  he  made  rapid 
progress  in  learning.  When  he  was  only  eight  he  was  largely  prejaared  to 
enter  Yale  College,  and  though  he  was  too  young  to  pursue  the  course  at 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         TIMOTHY  DWIGHT.  705 

that  time,  be  was  graduated  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen.  Two  years  after 
graduation  he  became  a  tutor  in  the  college,  and  continued  in  this  official 
position  from  1771  until  1777.  At  this  time  there  were  but  two  profess- 
orships in  the  institution,  so  that  the  instruction  of  the  students  was  for 
the  most  part  in  the  bands  of  the  president  and  three  or  four  tutors,  who 
were  young  men.  The  classes  were  thus  very  dependent  on  these  young 
men,  and  were  brought  under  their  influence  to  a  degree  which  at  pres- 
ent can  scarcely  be  appreciated.  Mr.  Dwight,  from  the  beginning  of  his 
work  as  a  teacher,  gained  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  pupils.  He 
stimulated  their  minds  and  awakened  their  enthusiasm.  It  is  said  that  he 
so  greatly  impressed  the  friends  of  the  college,  as  well  as  the  students, 
that  even  from  his  early  manhood  he  was  regarded  as  a  person  em- 
inently qualified  to  be  the  head  of  the  institution.  While  holding  the  of- 
fice of  tutor,  and  largely  occupied  with  his  duties  of  instruction,  he  car- 
ried forward  his  own  studies  energetically  in  various  lines.  He  read  law, 
with  the  intention  of  devoting  himself  to  it  as  his  life's  work.  He  also 
gave  himself,  with  much  earnestness,  to  the  study  of  the  Principia  of 
Newton.  At  the  same  time,  with  the  many-sided  tastes  and  mental  apti- 
tudes which  characterized  him,  he  cultivated  literature  and  poetry.  As  is 
well  known  to  all  who  are  conversant  with  the  early  history  of  American 
literature,  he  was  one  of  the  first  poets  who  appeared  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean.  Though  not  a  poet  of  a  high  order,  or  one  who  can  be  compared 
with  those  of  a  later  day,  he  accomplished  something  in  that  time  of 
small  beginnings  and  of  small  things.  He  pointed  the  way,  at  least, 
in  the  darkness  of  that  period,  towards  the  light  in  the  distance,  and  was 
as  far  beyond  those  who  preceded  him,  perchance,  as  he  was  behind  those 
who  followed.  In  a  word,  he  had  a  love  for  everything  that  the  mind 
can  enjoy,  and  an  inspiration  to  impart  to  every  pupil  who  came  under 
his  influence. 

On  leaving  the  tutorship  in  the  college  he  entered  the  army  of  the 
Revolution  as  a  chaplain,  but  by  reason  of  the  death  of  his  father  he  was 
constrained  to  resign  this  office  in  1779,  and  to  take  up  his  residence  in 
Northampton,  Massachusetts,  in  order  that  he  might  assist  his  mother  in 
providing  and  caring  for  her  large  family.  Having  re-  Twelve  years  a 
mained  there  a  few  years,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Congrega-  pastor. 
tional  church  in  Greenfield  Hill,  Connecticut,  in  1783.  In  this  quiet, 
rural  parish  he  continued  for  twelve  years,  working  with  energy  for  the 
good  of  his  people,  and  preaching  the  gospel  with  great  power.  His  fame 
immediately  extended  over  the  whole  region  where  he  lived.  Strangers 
from  abroad  were  attracted  to  the  village  to  listen  to  his  sermons.  Very 
soon  he  was  recognized  everywhere  as  a  leading  minister.  His'  counsel 
was  sought  on  every  side,  and  the  public  mind  was  directed  more  and 
more  towards  him  as  one  from  whom  the  country  could  hope  great 
things.  He  was,  we  may  say,  by  his  very  nature  a  teacher.  He  was 
45 


706  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

deeply  interested  in  the  young,  and  enjoyed  nothing  more  than  the  work 
of  educating  and  training  them  to  a  high  intellectual  and  moral  life.  For 
this  reason,  as  well  as  because  of  the  limited  support  which  his  ]-)arish 
could  afford  him,  he  established  very  soon  after  removing  to  Greenfield 
Hill  a  school  for  young  persons  of  both  sexes.  This  school  soon  be- 
came quite  celebrated.  Pupils  resorted  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. It  was  so  successful  and  won  so  high  a  reputation  that  students  are 
said  to  have  left  Yale  College  for  the  purpose  of  connecting  themselves 
President  of  with  it.  The  feeling  became  a  very  general  one  that  the 
^*'^-  presidency  of  the  college  should  be  offered  to  him  as  soon 

as  a  vacaucy  occurred.  Accordingly,  when  Dr.  Stiles  died,  in  1795,  the 
trustees  of  the  institution  immediately  elected  him  to  the  office.  He  ac- 
cepted it,  and  very  soon  removed  to  New  Haven. 

The  college  was  at  that  time  just  closing  the  first  century  of  its  ex- 
istence. It  was  a  very  critical  period  in  its  history.  The  eighteenth 
century  was  passing  into  the  nineteenth.  The  new  age  was  opening  new 
thought,  new  studies,  new  opportunities.  A  man  of  great  force  and  en- 
ergy and  wisdom,  a  man  who  could  foresee  the  demands  of  the  coming 
years  and  could  devise  and  carry  out  plans  to  meet  them,  was  called  for. 
If  ever  the  right  man  appeared  at  the  right  moment,  it  was  in  this  case. 
The  unanimous  testimony  of  all  who  were  associated  with  him  in  the 
instruction  and  government  of  the  college  is  that  he  was  the  originator 
of  its  prosperity  and  growth  during  the  last  eighty  years.  Immediately 
on  assuming  his  office  he  became  an  energizing  influence  in  every  line  of 
needed  action.  He  inspired  all  his  colleagues  and  helpers  with  his  own 
large  ideas  and  unquenchable  enthusiasm.  No  branch  of  study  seemed  un- 
important to  his  mind.  No  new  science  began  to  open  itself  but  he  in- 
stantly turned  his  thoughts  to  the  providing  of  means  for  its  cultivation  in 
the  institution.  With  a  wonderful  insight  into  character,  he  selected  young 
men  of  especial  fitness  for  the  new  chairs  of  instruction.  These  young 
assistants  not  only  became  earnest  cooperators  with  him  in  the  carry- 
ing out  of  his  plans,  but,  being  in  his  society  constantly,  were  infused 
with  his  ideas,  and  borne  on  in  their  individual  working  by  his  sympathy 
and  friendshij).  He  had  so  wide-extended  knowledge  and  such  a  true  esti- 
mate of  every  department  of  learning  that  all  could  turn  to  him  for 
counsel  and  aid.  The  value  of  such  a  man  to  an  institution  at  such  a 
point  in  its  history  cannot  be  too   highly  aj^preciated. 

His  official  life  as  president  of  the  college  continued  for  twenty-two 
years,  from  1795  to  1817.  Before  the  close  of  this  period  the  college 
had  more  than  doubled  its  number  of  students.  It  had  established  pro- 
fessorships in  the  leading  branches  of  study.  It  had  enlarged  its  organ- 
ization so  as  to  prepare  for  and  include  schools  of  professional  instruction 
in  medicine,  law,  and  theology.  Of  these  schools,  one  had  begun  a  flour- 
ishing existence,  another  had  been  unfolded  in  its  germ  within  the  col- 


Cent.  XYII.-XIX.]  TIMOTHY  DWTGHT.  707 

lege  curriculum,  and  the  means  had  been  secui'ed  for  the  beginning  of 
the  third  within  a  few  more  years.  The  college,  which  for  a  hundred 
years  before  had  been  little  more  than  an  academy  of  a  high  order,  had 
begun  to  develop  itself  towards  a  university.  The  plans  were  all  pre- 
pared, the  possibilities  all  well  considered,  the  growth  was  actually  com- 
menced, the  future  made  secure,  before  his  work  was  finished.  The 
period  of  his  presidency  was  a  creative  period.  When  it  came  to  its 
close  such  results  had  been  accomplished  that  bis  successors  had  only  to 
go  forward  in  the  line  of  his  own  action,  in  order  to  reach  all  the  grander 
achievements  of  the  present  day.  He  determined  who  his  successors 
should  be  in  the  time  immediately  following  his  own  by  imparting  his 
thoughts  and  the  energy  of  his  soul  to  his  associates.  They  grew  up 
around  him  with  a  love  and  reverence,  a  devotion  to  him  as  a  teacher, 
and  a  belief  in  his  wisdom,  such  as  have  rarely  been  surpassed.  They 
knew  that  he  moved  in  the  right  course,  because  they  saw  how  steadily 
and  safely  the  institution  advanced  from  year  to  year.  They  felt,  when 
they  had  themselves  passed  into  later  life,  and  he  was  no  more  among 
them,  that  the  same  course  was  the  wisest  and  best.  His  influence  thus 
remained,  though  his  presence  was  gone.  It  passed  down  from  those  who 
succeeded  him  to  those  who  succeeded  them,  and  has  not  ceased,  even  to 
this  day,  to  be  a  power  exerting  itself  in  the  traditions  and  character 
and  spirit  of  the  university.  New  men  have  arisen,  but  the  old  life  and 
the  old  impulse,  in  their  measure,  still  linger.  Every  great  institution  has 
its  peculiar  character,  —  the  genius  of  the  place,  as  we  may  say,  —  which 
remains  the  same  from  generation  to  generation.  This  peculiar  character 
which  marks  Yale  College  is  due  to  President  Dwight  in  a  greater  degree, 
probably,  than  to  any  other  man  who  has  been  connected  with  it  during 
its  whole  history. 

When  Dr.  Dwight  became  president  of  the  college,  the  influence  of 
French  infidelity  was  very  powerful.     The  young  men  of   ^  .  , 

•'  .  .     .         '    .  Dwight's  cham- 

the  country  turned  aside  froin  the  Christian  faith,  and  even  pionship  of  the 
arrayed  themselves  in  opposition  to  it.  In  the  college  there 
were  scarcely  any  professing  Christians.  It  is  said  that  at  one  time 
there  was  only  a  single  member  of  the  church  among  the  students.  The 
condition  seemed  almost  a  hopeless  one,  and  the  prospects  were  very  dis- 
heartening. But  the  president  entered  into  the  conflict  with  skepticism 
with  his  characteristic  energy  and  ardor.  With  powerful  sermons  in  the 
college  pulpit,  and  with  earnest  and  convincing  arguments  in  the  lect- 
ure-room, he  pressed  upon  his  pupils  the  claims  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 
He  stood  forth  in  the  institution  as  a  defender  of  the  faith,  victorious  in 
his  assaults  upon  the  enemy,  and,,  by  the  force  of  his  reasoning  and  the 
nobleness  of  his  charactei",  he  led  those  who  listened  to  his  teaching  to  a 
firm  belief  in  the  gospel.  The  whole  college  was  revolutionized  in  this 
regard.     Revivals  of  great  power  were  experienced.     The  church  was 


708  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

filled  with  earnest  Christians.  The  moral  influence  of  the  place  was 
made  to  bear  upon  all  who  came  to  it.  The  reign  of  infidelity  was  ended, 
and  the  students  were  settled  upon  firm  foundations.  Perhaps  no  more 
striking  or  happier  change  has  been  accomplished  by  a  single  man  within 
the  last  one  hundred  years  than  was  here  seen. 

But  not  only  as  a  defender  of  the  faith  did  Dr.  Dwight  affect  the  relig- 
ious character  of  his  pupils.  He  was  a  preacher  of  unusual  ability.  He 
commended  the  claims  of  the  divine  law  to  the  minds  and  consciences  of 
the  young  men.  By  his  eloquence,  his  profound  thought,  his  tender 
sympathy,  his  manifest  sense  of  the  invisible  things,  his  elevated  views 
of  duty  and  of  life,  his  concentration  of  all  his  faculties  in  devotion  to 
Christ,  he  had,  as  he  spoke  from  the  pulpit,  an  overmastering  power. 
The  impression  produced  by  his  preaching  on  the  Sabbath  was  deepened 
as  he  met  the  students  in  his  daily  exercises  with  them.  In  the  rec- 
itation-room he  unfolded  before  them  and  urged  upon  them  the  great 
truths  of  life,  and  in  his  private  intercourse  he  was  always,  like  a  faith- 
ful friend  and  father,  pointing  them  upward  to  higher  things.  Gifted 
with  extraordinary  powers  as  an  extemporaneous  speaker  and  as  a  con- 
versationist, he  was  able  to  carry  the  influence  of  his  public  efforts  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  and  a  professor  of  theology  into  the  hours  and 
work  of  every  day,  and  thus  to  give  continually  an  impulse  and  stimulus 
to  the  whole  student  community  towards  the  service  of  God. 

He  discharged  during  the  whole  term  of  his  presidency  the  duties  of 
the  college  preacher.  In  this  way  he  was  enabled  to  set  before  the  suc- 
Dwi  ht's "  The-  cessive  classcs  the  system  of  theological  truth  which  is  em- 
oiogy."  bodied  in  his  "  Theology,"  a  work  of  four  volumes,  which 

was  published  soon  after  his  death.  This  work  has  had  great  influence 
both  in  Great  Britain  and  in  our  own  country.  It  presents,  in  the  form 
of  sermons,  elaborate  discussions  of  the  various  doctrines  of  the  Chris- 
tian system.  With  great  clearness,  calmness,  and  moderation,  with  noth- 
ing of  the  wild  vehemence  of  a  too  ardent  advocate,  yet  with  great  rhe- 
torical force  and  with  all  the  qualities  of  the  best  discourses  of  the  age, 
these  sermons  set  before  the  reader,  as  they  did  before  the  hearers  when 
they  were  originally  delivered,  a  very  full  and  admirable  statement  of  the 
truth.  It  is  a  matter  of  no  surprise  to  us  when  we  learn  that  they  have 
been  made  a  text-book  in  theological  science  in  England  and  Scotland, 
and  that  the  clergymen  of  the  non-conforming  churches,  who  are  now  in 
middle  life  or  beyond  it,  have  very  generally  known  and  studied  their 
pages  in  the  days  of  their  preparatory  education.  These  volumes  will 
mark  an  era  in  theological  thought  in  American  history.  They  will  be 
treasured  in  libraries  after  they  have  passed  beyond  the  notice  of  the 
general  reader,  and  will  be  a  guide  to  the  investigator  as  he  attempts  to 
gain  a  knowledge  of  the  opinions  of  the  age  that  gave  them  birth. 

In  his  sermons  and  his  religious  teaching,  however,  Dr.  Dwight  aimed 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         TIMOTHY  DWIGHT.  709 

especially  at  practical  results.     He  felt  that  his  work,  in  the  position 
which  he  was  called  to  occupy,  was  that  of  an  educator  of  young  men. 
But  education,  he  thought,  could  reach  its  highest  development  and  real- 
ize its  noblest  end  only  when  it  should  bring  to  the  mind  the  knowledge 
of  spiritual  truth.     He  accordingly  consecrated  his  energies  and  his  ef- 
forts to  the  securing  for  all  who  came  under  his  teaching  such  an  educa- 
tion.    He  was  not,  therefore,  a  mere  speculative  philosopher ;  nor  was 
he  a  man  who  could  dwell  alone  in  the  abstractions  of  theological  sci- 
ence.    Whatever  depth  and  profoundness  of  thought  characterized  him, 
be  brought  everything  to  bear  upon  the  elevation  of  the  minds  of  others 
and  the  purification  of  their  hearts.     Though  he  was  an  influential  theo- 
logian, and  as  such  carried  forward  theological  knowledge  to  new  stages  of 
advancement,  he  did  not,  for  the  reason  mentioned,  take  such  a  position 
among  religious  thinkers  and  philosophers  as   President  Edwards  did. 
That  eminent  man  was,  in  the  truest  and  highest  sense,  an  originator 
and  a  discoverer.     His  was  one  of  the  great  creative  minds  of  the  world. 
The  genius  of  President  Dwiglit  was  of  a  different  order.     He  had  the 
clearest  apprehension  of  truth ;  admirable  powers  of  statement ;  a  free 
spirit  of  inquiry,  which  bore  him  onward  to  new  views ;  an  open,  honest, 
courageous  soul,  which  waited  for  further  revelations,  and  believed  that 
more  light  was  to  come  from  God.     He  was  therefore  qualified  in  a  re- 
markable degree  to  present  the  truth,  as  he  had  learned  it  fi'om  those 
who  preceded  him,  in  the  best  form ;  to  add  to  it,  as  imperfectly  appre- 
hended in  former  days,  the  greater  symmetry  and  fullness  which  his  own 
thought  and  studies  discovered  to  him ;  and  to  guide  his  followers  in  the 
way  which  should  lead   them  not  only  beyond  the  earlier  teachers,  but 
even  beyond  himself.     In  this  field,  as  in  others,  he  was  a  heroic  leader, 
taking  all  the  good  which  was  handed  down  to  him,  and  pressing  on  with 
it  to  all  the  good  which  the  future  held  in  its  own  possession.     He  was  a 
leader  who   impressed   all  about  him  with  his  ability,  his  sincerity,  his 
heroism,  and  his  love  of  truth,  and  thus   a  leader  whom  younger  men 
were  glad  to  follow.     He  gained  the  universal  respect  of  his  contempo- 
raries, the  universal  reverence  of  his  pupils.     He  made,  as  far  as  was 
possible,  every  man  who  was  brought  under  his  influence  a  thinker.      By 
his  example  he  rebuked  narrowness  and  intolerance.     By  his  precejDts 
he  urged  men  to  follow  the  truth,  whithersoever  it  might  lead  them.     By 
the  magnetism  of  his  personal  presence  and  his  spoken  words  he  incited 
them  to  be  fearless,  large-minded,  confident,  believing  theologians.     He 
accordingly  affected  the  theological  thinking  of  the  country  in  as  great  a 
degree  as  any  one  except  President  Edwards  himself,  and  must  be  reck- 
oned among  those  who  have  accomplished  great  results  in  this  divine 
science.     Indeed,  it  was  due  to  him  especially  that  the  theology  of  Ed- 
wards, as  distinguished  from  the  old  Calvinism  of  the  early  days  of  New 
England,  became  established  as  the  commonly  accepted  system.     He  had 


710  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

the  remarkable  power  of  taking  the  great  thoughts  of  a  man  like  Ed- 
wards, of  holding  them  freely  and  intelligently  iu  his  own  mind,  without 
being  bound  in  fetters  by  them ;  of  rejecting  all  injurious  additions  and 
outgrowths  connected  with  them  by  the  speculations  of  others,  and  de- 
veloping them  healthfully  for  himself;  and  of  leading  the  best  minds  to 
accept  them  as  thus  held,  and  to  make  them  the  basis  of  their  own  opin- 
ions. It  was  in  this  way  that  he  became,  in  a  sense,  the  originator  of 
theological  thought  as  it  has  unfolded  itself  in  New  England  since  his 
death. 

As  a  man,  Dr.  Dwight  was  tall  of  stature,  commanding  in  person,  with 
a  countenance  evincing  both  strong  intellect  and  benevolent  character. 
He  was  interested  in  all  things  which  interested  other  minds.  He  knew 
His  personal  much  of  a  vast  number  of  subjects,  and  thus  was  fitted  to 
S'*'^-  meet  men  of  every  class  within  their  own  fields  of  thought 

or  of  business.  His  gift  of  eloquent  discourse  was  even  more  strikingly 
manifest  as  seen  in  conversation,  according  to  the  testimony  of  very 
many  who  knew  him,  than  it  was  iu  his  public  efforts.  In  social  life, 
therefore,  he  was  admired  greatly.  He  was  full  of  kindness,  ready  al- 
ways to  help  otliers,  abouiiding  in  sympathy  and  charity.  Like  all  men 
of  his  order,  he  held  his  opinions  strongly,  and  was  positive  in  his  expres- 
sion of  them.  But  he  had  a  generous  spirit,  and  showed  hospitality  to 
new  ideas.  In  his  Christian  character  he  was  humble,  earnest,  loving, 
devoted.  He  trusted  wholly  to  Christ,  and  preached  Him  as  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation. 

In  a  brief  story  like  the  present,  no  complete  view  of  the  man  and 
no  complete  narrative  of  his  career  can  be  given.  It  is  only  possible  to 
set  forth  his  character  and  work  in  some  aspects,  and  let  this  imperfect 
representation  speak  to  the  reader  of  what  he  did.  The  great  monu- 
ment commemorating  his  life  of  mental  and  moral  activity  is  Yale  Col- 
lege. He  was  its  second  founder,  as  it  were,  to  whom  is  due  its  origin 
as  a  university.  The  extent  of  his  influence  can  be  measured  only  when 
all  the  good  can  be  computed  which  has  been  accomplished  by  his  pupils 
in  every  sphere  of  life,  all  of  whom  —  however  widely  they  differed  in 
other  respects  —  were  united  in  ascribing  to  him  a  wonderful  influence 
on  their  minds  and  hearts.  The  results  for  theology  which  came  from 
him  were  the  admirable  presentation  of  Christian  doctrine  in  liis  pub- 
lished volumes,  and  the  inspiration  .to  honest  study  of  the  truth  and  to 
freedom  iu  Christian  thought  which  he  gave  to  his  contemporaries  and 
successors.  The  best  testimony  to  his  worth  and  nobleness  and  power 
as  a  man  is  found  in  the  love  of  those  who  knew  him  personally  and  are 
still  in  life,  and  in  the  honorable  reputation  in  which  his  name  is  held 
wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken,  or  the  hymns  of  the  church 
are  suns.  —  T.  D. 


Cext.  XVIL-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECHER.  711 

LIFE   XXIII.     LYMAN   BEECHER. 

A.    D.    1775-A.    D.    1863.       CONGREGATIONAL, AMERICA. 

Few  men  have  exerted  a  wider  and  more  powerful  influence  upon 
their  country  and  times  than  Lyman  Beecher.  The  eighty-eight  years 
of  his  life  cover  a  period  in  which  some  of  the  most  important  move- 
ments, moral,  theological,  and  political,  were  in  progress  in  America,  and 
in  all  these  he  was  intensely  interested  and  widely  efficient. 

Like  that  of  many  of  the  strong  men  of  New  England,  his  early 
youth  was  spent  upon  a  farm,  and  he  was  inured  to  daily  labor,  and  bred 
up  in  all  the  economies  and  frugalities  of  a  Connecticut  farmer's  life. 
But  the  uncle  who  adopted  him  soon  perceived  the  workings  of  a  mind 
and  spirit  which  needed  a  larger  sphere,  and  of  his  own  accord  offered  to 
him  the  opportunity  of  a  college  education. 

In  the  year  1793  he  left  the  village  of  North  Guilford  and  entered 
Yale  College,  at  New  Haven.  At  that  early  period  the  advantages  of 
this  institution,  as  respects  library  and  apparatus,  were  inferior  to  those 
of  many  high  schools  and  country  academies  in  these  days.  But  in  his 
Sophomore  year  the  college  was  reinforced  by  the  accession  of  Dr. 
Dwight  to  the  presidency,  and  from  that  time  Mr.  Beecher's  whole  mind, 
character,  and  education  came  under  the  formative  influence  of  this  dis- 
tinguished man.  When  Dr.  Dwight  took  the  college,  its  condition  was 
one  of  great  demoralization.  The  college  church  was  almost  extinct. 
Most  of  the  students  were  skeptics.  Wine  and  liquors  were  kept  in  many 
rooms,  and  intemperance,  gambling,  and  licentiousness  were  common. 
In  the  class  before  Beecher,  the  leading  students  were  professed  infidels, 
calling  each  other  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  D'Alembert,  and  glorying  in  the 
writings  of  the  encyclopedists.  In  the  pride  of  their  new-found  philos- 
ophies, these  young  disciples  boasted  that  the  faculty  would  never  dare 
to  meet  them  in  free  discussion.  Quite  to  their  surprise,  however,  when 
they  handed  to  Dr.  Dwight  their  subjects  for  class  disputation,  he  selected 
this,  "  Is  the  Bible  the  Word  of  God  ?  "  and  told  them  to  do  their  best. 
He  heard  all  they  had  to  say,  and  answered  them,  preaching  a  course  of 
lectures  every  Sunday  morning  for  six  months ;  and  by  the  end  of  that 
time  the  whole  public  sentiment  of  the  college  was  changed  and  purified. 
In  his  Junior  year  young  Beecher  became  the  subject  of  a  deep  personal 
religious  experience,  in  which,  for  a  long  time,  he  struggled  alone  and 
unaided  with  all  the  mysterious  problems  of  theology.  As  light  gradu- 
ally dawned  on  his  mind,  he  embraced  the  Christian  ministry  as  his  ap- 
pointed vocation,  with  a  humility,  a  single-heartedness,  and  a  sincerity 
somewhat  in  contrast  to  the  ambitious  views  with  which  some  modern 
young  men  enter  this  field. 


712  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

He  feared  that  he  might  not  get  a  settlement,  and  accepted  thankfully 
a  call  to  the  quiet  village  of  East  Hampton,  on  the  southeast  extremity 
of  Long  Island.  A  place  more  humble,  obscure,  and  out  of  the  great 
world  could  scarcely  be  found :  there  was  not  a  store  in  the  town  ;  it 
was  seven  miles  from  a  post-office ;  and  the  main  street  of  the  village 
showed  strips  of  green  turf  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  marking  the  rarity 
of  travel. 

Mr.  Beecher,  however,  threw  himself  into  his  work  in  this  place  with 
as  much  zeal  and  energy  as  if  it  were  the  only  place  to  be  thought  of 
upon  earth.  A  letter  from  his  wife,  shortly  after  their  settlement,  gives 
the  following  picture  of  his  labors  :  — 

"  Mr.  Beecher  has  preached  seven  or  eight  times  a  week  all  winter. 
Last  week,  for  example,  he  preached  twice  in  town  and  gave  two  lect- 
ures, besides  a  funeral  sermon  on  Gardiner's  Island  and  five  sermons  to 
the  Indians  and  whites  down  on  Montauk  Point.  He  lectures  every 
week  at  some  of  the  adjoining  villages,  Wainscott,  four  miles,  Amaghan- 
sett,  three  miles,  Northwest,  seven  miles,  The  Springs,  seven,  and  an- 
other place  with  an  ugly  Indian  name.  Some  weeks  he  lectures  at  two 
or  three  of  these  places,  and  when  not  at  these  places,  has  held  meetings 
afternoons  and  evenings,  and  sometimes  forenoons." 

In  the  central  village  of  East  Hampton,  the  prevalent  spirit  of  skep- 
ticism had  found  a  foothold.  There  was  in  the  place  an  infidel  club, 
not  large  in  point  of  numbers,  but  con^posed  of  men  of  talent,  education, 
and  indefatigable  zeal.  Two  of  the  teachers  employed  in  the  village 
academy  had  proved  to  be  skeptics,  and  their  influence  had  done  great 
evil.  When  Mr.  Beecher  came  upon  the  stage,  he  says,  "  I  did  not  at- 
tack infidelity  directly,  not  at  all ;  I  preached  right  to  the  conscience. 
Every  sermon  with  my  eye  on  the  gun  to  hit  somebody.  Went  through 
the  doctrines,  showed  what  they  did  n't  mean,  what  they  did,  knocked 
away  objections,  and  drove  home  on  the  conscience."  This  sentence  gives 
an  idea  of  what  was  the  peculiarity  of  Dr.  Beecher's  preaching  through 
life.  It  was  individual,  the  result  of  close  observation  of  the  personal 
character  and  needs  of  his  hearers.  He  cultivated  the  society,  the  inti- 
macy, and  the  friendship  of  those  of  the  most  adverse  views.  His  people 
were  amazed  to  hear  of  him  as  dining  with  a  deist  and  going  out  hunting 
with  another  deist ;  but  while  mingling  as  a  man  among  men,  he  was 
always  studying  character  and  watching  his  opportunities,  if  by  any  means 
he  might  save  some.  Those  most  opposed  to  the  doctrines  he  repre- 
sented were  often  warmly  attached  to  the  man.  In  time  his  ardent  zeal 
and  burning  energy  woke  up  the  still  and  quiet  community  about  him, 
and  a  powerful  religious  awakening  was  the  result,  in  which  many  con- 
verts were  added  to  the  church. 

His  expenditure  of  vital  energy  began  to  tell  upon  his  strength.     He 
was  seized  with  an  illness  followed  by  a  long  period  of  ill-health ;  he 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECHER.  713 

was  laid  up,  unable  to  preach,  for  nine  months.  After  a  while,  by  vigorous 
out-of-door  exercise,  he  recovered  his  strength  and  resumed  his  labors. 
During  this  time,  he  prepared  for  the  press  his  first  published  sermon, 
"  On  Dueling,"  a  sermon  called  forth  by  the  celebrated  and  fatal  duel 
between  Aaron  Burr  and  Alexander  Hamilton.  It  was  first  preached 
before  presbytery  at  Aquebougue,  and  at  their  request  prepared  for  pub- 
lication. A  stray  copy  of  this  sermon  by  a  nameless  young  minister  found 
its  way  to  New  York,  where  an  effort  was  being  made  in  the  ministry 
to  get  up  an  association  against  dueling,  and  the  sermon  was  shown  to 
the  great  Dr.  Mason,  who  then  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Dr.  Mason  reviewed  the  sermon  with  approbation,  drew  up  a 
constitution,  and  publicly  recommended  the  object.  At  the  next  synod, 
at  Newark,  Mr.  Beecher  brought  up  the  resolution  of  forming  an  anti- 
dueling  society,  but  in  the  mean  time  certain  politicians  had  raised  an  op- 
posing party.  For  the  first  time,  young  Mr.  Beecher  poured  out  his 
whole  soul  in  that  powerful,  vigorous,  and  condensed  style  of  impas- 
sioned oratory  which  marked  his  after  life,  bearing  down  opposition  and 
carrying  all  before  it.  The  opposition  was  overruled,  and  the  resolu- 
tion carried.  The  synod  started  forthwith  a  series  of  efforts  that  perma- 
nently affected  the  whole  Northern  mind.  When  Henry  Clay  was  up  as 
candidate  for  the  presidency  in  after  years,  forty  thousand  copies  of 
this  sermon  were  printed  and  distributed  as  a  campaign  document ;  it 
never  ceased  to  be  a  power  in  the  politics  of  the  country.  In  1808  he 
preached  before  the  synod,  at  Newark,  his  sermon  on  the  text,  "  Thy  will 
be  done,"  which  was  by  request  printed,  and  atti'acted  great  attention  in 
the  theological  world.  The  title  of  the  sermon  was  "  The  Government  of 
God  Desirable."  It  was  a  statement  and  a  vindication  of  the  principles 
of  the  divine  administration  in  this  and  all  worlds,  its  whole  tone  insjDir- 
ing,  cheerful,  and  triumphant,  like  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  Dr.  Bacon,  of  New  Haven,  says  of  this  sermon,  that  '•  it  is  well 
worthy  to  be  ranked  with  the  greatest  discourses  of  the  elder  Edwards, 
which  it  resembles  in  its  solid  massiveness  of  thought  and  terrible  ear- 
nestness, while  it  excels  them  in  a  certain  power  of  condensed  expres- 
sion, which  often  makes  a  sentence  strike  like  a  thunderbolt." 

A  mind  of  such  energy  and  vigor  could  not  long  be  allowed  to  rest  in 
an  obscure  situation,  and  in  a  few  years  Mr.  Beecher  accepted  an  invita- 
tion to  the  town  of  Litchfield  in  Connecticut.  Litchfield  was  a  rural 
town,  in  a  hilly,  picturesque  region,  a  county  seat,  and  a  place  of  great 
importance  and  influence.  It  united  more  intelligence,  culture,  and  edu- 
cation than  could  be  found  in  any  other  town  in  the  State,  excepting  the 
collegiate  seat  of  New  Haven.  The  law  school,  under  the  care  of  the 
celebrated  jurists.  Judge  Tappan  Reeve  and  Judge  Gould,  drew  to  the 
place  young  men  of  the  finest  minds  from  every  State  of  the  Union. 
The  female  academy,  under  Mr.  I.  P.  Brae  and  Miss   Pierce,  attracted 


714  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

an  equal  number  of  young  ladies  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  The 
governor  of  the  state  for  some  years  resided  there.  Colonel  Talmage, 
the  friend  and  associate  of  General  Washington,  was  a  leading  member 
of  the  church,  and  a  number  of  distinguished  lawyers  and  civilians  of 
wealth  and  family  made  Litchfield  their  residence.  Besides  these,  there 
was  an  extensive  outlying,  rural  population  of  farmers,  who  from  a  cir- 
cuit of  seven  or  eight  nailes  round  came  in  their  farm-wagons  every 
Sunday  to  attend  church. 

But  with  this  variety  of  education  and  position,  there  was  never  any 
occasion  given  to  feel  that  the  sympathies  of  the  new  pastor  were  more 
with  the  rich  and  the  cultured  than  with  the  rural  and  laboring  portion 
of  his  flock.  Brought  up  as  a  farmer's  boy,  he  always  retained  in  his 
heart  the  sympathies  of  that  wholesome  life;  his  illustrations  and  images 
were  largely  drawn  from  it,  and  in  every  farm-house  he  was  felt  by  its 
inmates  to  be  as  one  of  themselves. 

As  before,  in  his  little  parish  at  East  Hampton,  he  preached  three  times 
every  Sunday,  and  four  times  in  the  week,  in  the  school-houses  lying  north, 
south,  east,  and  west  of  the  town  hill.^ 

1  Here  it  may  be  in  point  to  give  a  brief  view  of  that  system  of  doctrine  which  he 
preached.  We  extract  a  summary  from  a  sermon  published  during  his  Litchfield  pastor- 
ate, entitled,   The  Faith  once  Delivered  to  the  Saints. 

"The  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  includes  in  it,  among  other  doctrines,  the  fol- 
lowing:— 

"1.  That  men  are  free  agents,  possessing  such  faculties,  and  placed  in  such  circum- 
stances as  render  it  practicable  for  them  to  dn  whatever  God  requires,  making  it  reason- 
able that  He  should  require  it,  and  fit  that  He  should  inflict  literally  the  entire  penalty 
of  disobedience. 

"2.  That  the  divine  law  requires  supreme  love  to  God  and  impartial  love  for  men,  to- 
gether with  certain  overt  duties  by  which  this  love  is  expressed,  and  that  this  law  is  sup- 
ported by  the  sanctions  of  eternal  life  or  death. 

"  3.  That  the  ancestors  of  our  race  violated  this  law,  and  that  as  a  consequence  of  their 
apostasy,  all  men  as  soon  as  they  become  capable  of  accountable  action  do,  of  their  own 
accord,'most  freely  and  most  wickedly  withhold  from  God  the  supreme  love,  and  from 
man  the  impartial"  love,  which  the  law  requires,  besides  violating  many  of  its  practical 
precepts. 

"4.  That  according  to  the  principles  of  moral  government,  obedience,  either  antecedent 
or  subsequent  to  transgression,  cannot  avert  the  penalty  of  law;  and  that  pardon,  on  con- 
dition of  repentance  merely,  would  destroy  the  efficiency  of  moral  government. 

"  5.  That  an  atonement  "for  sin  has  been"  made  by  Jesus  Christ,  with  reference  to  which 
God  can  maintain  his  law,  and  forgive  sin  upon  condition  of  repentance  towards  God  and 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and"  that  all  men  are  sincerely  invited  to  return  to  God  with 
an  assurance  of  pardon  and  eternal  life  if  they  comply. 

"6.  That  compliance  with  these  conditions  "is  practicable  in  the  regular  exercise  of  those 
powers  and  faculties  given  to  man  as  an  accountable  creature,  and  is  prevented  only  by  the 
exercise  of  a  voluntary  criminal  aversion  to  God,  so  inflexible  that  by  motives  merely  men 
are  never  persuaded  to  repent  and  believe. 

"  7.  That  God  is  able  by  his  Spirit  to  make  such  application  of  truth  to  the  mind  of  man 
as  shall  unfailingl}'  convince  of  sin,  and  render  him  joyfulh'  obedient  to  the  gospel. 

"8.  That  this  special  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 'given  according  to  the  supreme  dis- 
cretion or  good  pleasure  of  God,  and  yet  ordinarily  is  so  associated  with  the  use  of  the  means 
of  grace,  as  to  create  ample  encouragement  to  attend  upon  them,  and  to  render  all  hopes 
of  conversion  while  neglecting  or  rejecting  the  truth,  or  while  living  in  open  sin,  presump- 
tuous. 

"9.  That  believers  are  justified  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  received  into  covenant  with 
God,  which  insures  their  continuance  in  holiness  forever;  while  those  who  die  in  their  sins 
will  continue  to  sin  willfully  and  be  punished  justly  forever. 

"10.  That  God  exercises  a  providential  government  which  extends  to  all  events  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  lay  a  just  foundation  fur  resignation  to  his  will  in  afliictions  brought  upon 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECHER.  715 

The  preaching  of  Dr.  Beecher  was  never  abstractly  metaphysical  or 
dry  doctrinal  statement.  The  doctrinal  statement  was  only  a  foundation 
on  which  he  based  a  strong  personal  urgent  plea  with  the  hearers  to  do 
something  immediately,  and  with  all  their  might.  Nothing  was  reckoned 
success  by  him  that  did  not  result  in  the  conversion  of  souls  to  God,  — 
the  radical  change  of  heart  and  life. 

The  New  England  mind  in  his  day  was  thoroughly  possessed  and 
leavened  by  Calvinistic  metaphysical  theology.  Often  the  absolute  su- 
premacy of  the  Divine  Being  was  asserted  in  forms  which  practically 
nullified  human  ability,  and  left  the  impression  that  man  was  subject  to 
the  commands  of  a  hard  master,  who  required  what  he  had  received  no 
ability  to  perform.  Dr.  Beecher  asserted  that  perfect  free  agency  was 
the  only  proper  foundation  of  just  government.  His  children  still  re- 
member that  he  would  never  permit  them  to  commit  to  memory  the  an- 
swer of  the  Assembly's  Catechism  which  says,  "  No  mere  man  since  the 
fall  is  able  perfectly  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God."  This  dec- 
laration he  altered  into  the  statement,  "  No  man  since  the  fall  is  will- 
ing to  keep  the  commandments  of  God."  This  style  of  preaching  and 
appeal  was  of  a  kind  fitted  to  produce  results,  and  consequently  the 
active  years  of  Dr.  Beecher's  labors  in  Litchfield  were  largely  taken  up 
in  revival  labors  in  that  and  the  neighboring  towns,  in  gathering  in  con- 
verts, and  building  up  churches.  One  of  the  family  letters  in  the  earlier 
part  of  his  ministry  speaks  of  a  "  continual  revival "  as  going  on  in 
Litchfield. 

Besides  this.  Dr.  Beecher's  attention  was  early  called  to  the  subject 
of  public  reform.  When  he  went  to  Litchfield  intemperance  prevailed 
through  society  to  a  fearful  extent.  The  habit  of  drinking  spirituous 
liquors  pervaded  all  ranks  of  society,  and  was  countenanced  by  the  ex- 
ample of  ministers,  at  whose  stated  ecclesiastical  meetings  the  brandy 
bottle  and  the  tobacco  pipe  held  a  prominent  situation.  Here  and  there 
in  all  ranks  of  society  might  be  counted  hapless  victims  lost  to  themselves 
and  their  friends,  through  the  curse  of  intemperance.  In  the  year  1812 
Dr.  Beecher  moved  in  the  general  association  that  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  report  on  the  ways  of  arresting  the  tide  of  intemperance.  As 
chairman  of  that  committee,  Dr.  Beecher  presented  a  report  recommend- 
ing the  following  measures  :  — 

us  by  the  wickedness  of  men,  and  for  gratitude  in  the  reception  of  good  in  all  the  various 
modes  of  liuman  instrumentality ;  that  all  events  shall  illustrate  his  glory,  and  be  made 
subservient  to  the  good  of  his  kingdom ;  and  that  this  government  is  administered  by  a  pur- 
pose or  plan  known  and  approved  of  by  Him  from  the  beginning. 

"Finally,  that  the  God  of  tlie  universe  has  revealed  Himself  as  existing  in  three  persons, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  possessing  distinct  and  equal  attributes,  and  in 
some  unrevealed  manner  so  united  as  to  constitute  one  God." 

This  short  statement  contains  the  sum  of  that  S3'stem  of  doctrines  on  which  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher  founded  his  ministry,  and  upon  which  he  grounded  his  pungent  appeals  to  men 
to  repent  and  turn  to  God  at  once.  Full  ability  to  accept  the  gospel  as  offered,  and  obliga- 
tion to  accept  immediately,  —  those  were  the  salient  points  of  his  ministry. 


716  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

1.  That  all  ministers  in  the  Association  should  preach  upon  the  sub- 
ject. 

2.  That  the  District  Associations  should  abstain  from  the  use  of  ardent 
spirits  at  ecclesiastical  meetings. 

3.  That  members  of  churches  abstain  from  the  unlawful  vending  or 
purchase  and  use  of  ardent  spirits,  exercise  vigilant  discipline,  and  cease 
to  consider  the  production  of  ardent  spirits  a  part  of  hospitable  enter- 
tainment. 

4.  That  parents  cease  from  use  of  ardent  spirits  in  the  family,  and  warn 
their  children  of  the  danger. 

5.  That  farmers,  manufacturers,  and  mechanics  substitute  palatable  and 
nutritious  drinks,  and  give  if  needful  additional  compensation  to  those  in 
their  employ. 

6.  To  circulate  documents  on  the  subject  among  the  people. 

7.  To  form  voluntary  associations  to  aid  the  civil  magistrates  in  the 
execution  of  the  laws. 

In  one  year,  by  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  these  measures,  the  tem- 
perance reformation  was  aroused  in  full  force  in  New  England.  In 
1813  the  Massachusetts  Temperance  Society  was  founded,  and  since  then 
by  correspondence,  preaching,  lecturing,  and  organization,  the  work  has 
been  kept  up  in  America,  and  its  example  spread  to  England,  Scotland, 
and  the  Continent.  Dr.  Beecher's  six  sermons  on  the  nature,  causes,  and 
cure  for  intemperance  were  the  offspring  of  a  great  personal  anxiety  and 
affliction  for  two  noble  and  much  beloved  men  in  his  parish  who  had 
fallen  under  the  dominion  of  this  fatal  tyrant.  They  produced  an  im- 
mense impression  at  the  time,  and  have  been  among  the  most  efficient, 
permanent  documents  of  the  temperance  reform  in  both  this  country  and 
Europe.  They  have  been  translated  into  many  foreign  languages,  even 
into  that  of  the  Hottentots,  carrying  with  them  the  burning  energy  which 
first  gave  them  birth. 

The  remedy  for  intemperance,  as  proposed  by  Dr.  Beecher  in  that 
early  period,  was  that  which  in  later  days  originated  and  gave  efficiency 
to  the  Maine  law :  It  is  the  banishment  of  ardent  spirits  from  the  list 
of  lawful  articles  of  commerce  by  a  correct  and  efficient  public  sentiment, 
Buch  as  has  turned  slavery  out  of  half  the  land,  and  will  yet  expel  it 
from  the  world." 

In  this  same  year,  1812,  also,  Dr.  Beecher  attended  the  first  meeting  of 
the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  returning  full  of  zeal 
called  together  several  laymen  and  clergymen  from  various  parts  of  the 
county,  who  organized  the  Litchfield  County  Missionary  Society,  the 
first  auxiliary  of  the  American  Board.  The  missionary  enthusiasm  thus 
awakened  had  a  decided  effect  in  enlarging  and  strengthening  the  piety 
of  the  New  England  mind.  It  widened  the  field  of  vision,  enlarged  sym- 
pathies and  charities,  and  taught  noble  lessons  of  self-sacrifice  and  self- 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECHER.  717 

devotion.  The  first  missionaries  to  foreign  lands  bore  with  them  the  heart 
of  the  American  churches,  and  an  influence  constantly  came  back  from 
those  mission  fields  to  enrich  the  piety  of  those  who  sent  laborers  thither. 

The  general  state  of  the  country  in  the  years  immediately  following 
the  war  of  1812  was  such  as  to  create  in  Dr.  Beecher's  mind  grave  anx- 
ieties. Political  parties  were  intensely  bitter ;  the  experiment  of  a  free 
representative  republic  was  yet  a  new  and  untried  one ;  the  war  brought, 
as  wars  always  do,  some  demoralization  and  disturbance,  and  the  old  set- 
tled foundations  of  New  England  morality  were  threatened  on  all  hands. 
The  Congregational  ministers  of  New  England,  however,  were  a  very 
able  and  united  body,  fully  aware  of  the  dangers  of  the  times  and  prompt 
to  meet  every  exigency.  As  yet,  the  Congregational  Church  was  the 
form  of  religion  supported  by  law.  Every  property-holder  was  by  law 
taxed  for  its  support.  But  French  infidelity,  which  at  this  time  breathed 
a  poisonous  atmosphere  across  the  Atlantic,  began  to  excite  in  the  popu- 
lar mind  a  secret  uneasiness  and  resistance  which  made  itself  felt  in 
society.  Dr.  Beecher,  with  the  instinct  of  a  sagacious  foresight,  per- 
ceived an  impending  change  in  the  institutions  of  New  England,  and 
exerted  all  his  influence  in  preparing  for  it.  He  published  a  sermon  on 
the  "Building  of  Waste  Places,"  of  which  he  says  in  his  biography,  "  The 
churches  did  not  understand  all  I  meant  by  the  sermon.  I  foresaw  what 
was  coming.  I  saw  the  enemy  digging  at  the  foundations  of  the  standing 
order.  I  went  to  work  with  deliberate  calculation  to  defend  it,  and  to 
prepare  the  churches,  if  it  fell,  to  take  care  of  themselves." 

The  sermon  on  the  "  Building  of  Waste  Places  "  resulted  in  forming:  a 
domestic  missionary  society,  for  the  work  of  home  evangelization ;  churches 
were  thus  built  up  everywhere  through  the  State. 

In  due  time,  however,  the  standing  order  fell ;  the  years  in  which  this 
change  was  working  in  society  were  years  of  great  anxiety  and  activity 
to  Dr.  Beecher  and  the  Congregational  ministers  of  Connecticut.  By  a 
union  of  all  the  minor  sects  with  the  democratic  party,  a  complete  sepa- 
ration of  church  and  state  was  finally  attained.  All  laws  ]3rotecting  relig- 
ious institutions,  or  securing  the  suf^port  of  the  ministry,  were  repealed, 
and  the  whole  field  was  flung  open  to  the  free  guidance  of  moral  in- 
fluence.    Of  this  time  Dr.  Beecher  says  in  his  biography  :  — 

"  It  was  as  dark  a  day  as  ever  I  saw.  The  odium  thrown  on  the  min- 
istry was  inconceivable.  The  injury  done  to  the  cause  of  Christ  was,  as 
we  then  supposed,  irreparable.  For  several  days  I  suffered  what  no 
tongue  can  tell  for  the  best  thing  that  ever  happened  to  the  State  of 
Connecticut.  It  cut  the  churches  loose  from  their  dependence  on  state 
support ;  it  threw  them  wholly  on  their  own  resources  and  upon  God. 
They  say  ministers  have  lost  their  influence  ;  the  fact  is  they  have  gained. 
By  voluntary  efforts,  societies,  missions,  and  revivals,  they  exert  a  deeper 
influence  than  they  could  by  cocked  hats  and  gold-headed  canes." 


718     THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.  [Period  V. 

In  a  letter  written  at  the  close  of  the  struggle,  he  says,  "  On  the  whole 
I  have  concluded  to  give  up  the  ship,  not  to  enemies  who  have  deter- 
mined to  take  it,  but  to  Christ,  who,  I  doubt  not,  will  save  it." 

In  the  very  midst  of  the  darkest  part  of  the  struggle,  Dr.  Beecher  was 
called  to  encounter  the  heaviest  possible  affliction,  in  the  death  of  a  wife 
who  had  hitherto  been  to  him  a  guide,  a  reliance,  and  an  inspiration. 
She  was  one  of  those  rare  human  beings  who  seemed  always  to  live  in 
the  love  and  living  presence  of  God,  and  who  saw  all  things  in  the  light 
of  heaven  ;  never  disturbed,  discouraged,  or  dismayed ;  her  last  words, 
even  in  the  shadow  of  death,  were  words  of  triumphant  faith  and  cheer- 
ful hope.  Her  departure  was  a  terrible  blow,  yet  hers  was  one  of  those 
natures  whose  influence  never  dies,  and  to  the  latest  hour  of  his  life,  her 
spiritual  presence  was  ever  with  her  husband. 

Gradually,  through  faith  and  prayer  and  the  habit  of  constant  activity, 
cheerfulness  and  hope  returned,  and  Dr.  Beecher  formed  a  second  con- 
nection, which  secured  to  his  large  family  the  cares  of  a  faithful,  affection- 
ate mother.  His  influence,  widely  extended  through  New  England,  caused 
him  to  be  heard  of  as  a  power  in  Boston.  He  was  first  invited  there  to 
labor  in  a  revival,  and  this  in  due  time  was  followed  by  an  invitation  to 
take  the  charge  of  the  Hanover  Street  Church,  a  new  enterprise  in  the 
north  part  of  the  city.     He  removed  to  Boston  in  the  spring  of  1826. 

At  the  time  Dr.  Beecher  commenced  his  ministry  in  Boston  Unitarian- 
ism  was  dominant  not  only  in  the  city  but  in  the  State.  Harvard  Col- 
lege was  under  that  influence,  and  it  was  familiarly  stated  that  all  the 
elite  of  intellect,  of  family,  rank,  and  fashion,  were  of  that  way  of  think- 
ing. The  church  that  Dr.  Beecher  took  was  in  an  unfashionable  part 
of  the  city,  and  numbered  only  thirty-seven  members.  In  his  reminis- 
cences of  this  period  he  says,  "  I  made  no  attack  on  Unitarians.  I  car- 
ried the  state  of  warm  revival  feeling  I  had  had  in  Litchfield  for  years. 
I  knew  nobody  there.  I  took  those  subjects  that  were  unquestioned,  but 
solemn,  to  make  them  tell  on  the  conscience.  I  began  with  prudence,  be- 
cause a  minister,  however  well  known  at  home,  however  wise  and  suc- 
cessful, has  to  make  himself  a  character  anew,  and  find  out  what  material 
is  around  him  ;  people  came  to  hear  ;  there  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  about 
me,  great  curiosity.  They  would  hear  and  then  run  me  down,  and  declare 
they  would  never  go  again ;  but  they  did  go,  and  many  who  came  to  scoff 
remained  to  pray." 

It  was  Dr.  Beecher's  custom  to  follow  his  public  appeals  by  immedi- 
ate private  labors  with  such  as  they  affected.  Soon  tlie  number  of  these 
was  so  great  that  a  specific  meeting  for  those  who  wished  personal  re- 
ligious instruction  was  appointed.  The  first  week  fifteen  came,  and 
twenty  the  second  ;  but  the  fourth  time  there  were  three  hundred,  and 
for  many  months  the  weekly  inquiry  meeting  numbered  four  or  five  hun- 
dred.    Dr.  Beecher  has  left  a  record  of  how  he  conducted  these  meetings. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECIIER.  719 

"  It  was  singultar  to  see  the  changes  of  language  and  manner  as  I 
passed  from  one  class  to  another.  A  large  portion  would  reveal  their  state 
easily,  and  need  only  plain  instruction.  Another  class  would  Iiave  diffi- 
culties ;  could  not  see,  realize,  or  feel  anything ;  did  not  know  how  to 
begin.  To  such  a  careful  course  of  instruction  was  given.  Another 
would  plead  inability,  could  not  do  anything.  Many  of  these  said 
their  ministers  told  them  so.  Now  I  rose  into  the  field  of  metaphysics, 
and  began  to  form  my  language  for  purposes  of  discrimination.  Next 
came  the  infidel  and  skeptical  class,  whom  I  received  with  courtesy  and 
kindness ;  but  after  a  few  suggestions  calculated  to  conciliate,  I  told 
them  that  the  subject  was  one  that  could  not  be  discussed  among  so 
many,  but  that  I  should  be  happy  to  see  them  at  my  house,  and  in  that 
way  I  succeeded  many  times.  While  I  was  in  the  inquiry  room  the 
church  held  a  prayer-meeting  in  a  room  near  by,  and  as  conversions  hap- 
pened every  night,  —  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty,  —  I  went  in  and  reported  to 
them.  That  was  blessed.  They  waited  in  hope  and  prayer,  and  I  went 
in  to  carry  the  good  tidings." 

At  the  first  season  appointed  for  the  reception  of  members  seventy 
new  converts  united  with  the  church,  more  than  doubling  its  numbers. 
From  this  time  for  four  years,  a  constant  revival  extended  not  only 
over  Boston  but  through  the  State.  Churches  were  built  up,  and  con- 
verts gathered,  and  religious  topics  became  the  leading  subjects  of  inter- 
est and  thought  through  the  community. 

Dr.  Beecher's  pastorate  in  Boston  was  extended  only  through  six 
years,  being  the  shortest  of  his  life  ;  but  it  was  the  most  active,  powerful, 
and  efficient.  Besides  the  constant  revival  in  his  own  church,  bringing 
incessant  personal  labor  with  individual  seekers  after  religion,  there  was 
the  "  care  of  all  the  churches,"  in  the  sympathy  and  zeal  with  which  he 
took  into  his  heart  the  fortunes,  successes,  and  trials  of  all  the  other 
churches  of  the  State. 

It  was  a  time  of  intense  excitement.  The  decision  given  by  the  su- 
preme court  of  Massachusetts  in  the  Groton  case  had  spread  dismay 
among  them.  In  this  case  a  society  worshiping  in  the  church  had  out- 
voted the  communicants,  and  taken  possession  of  the  church  funds  and 
building  and  the  communion  service.  The  church  appealed  to  law,  and 
a  decision  was  rendered  in  the  supreme  court  of  the  State  that  "  the 
church,  as  the  body  of  communicants  were  called,  had  no  existence  in 
law,  and  that  the  church  property  and  funds  belonged  to  the  society  who 
habitually  worshiped  in  the  building."  This  opened  a  wide  door  by 
which  any  number  of  persons,  of  all  characters  and  views,  by  taking 
pews  in  a  church  might  control  its  property  and  settle  whatever  minister 
they  chose.  As  a  consequence  the  orthodox  churches  in  several  places 
were  dispossessed  of  their  property,  and  obliged  to  take  the  burden  o' 
building  new  churches. 


720  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

The  so-called  liberal  party,  which  held  it  as  a  prime  tenet,  "  that  it  was 
no  matter  what  a  man  believed  if  he  only  were  honest,"  nevertheless,  in 
the  stress  of  religious  controversy,  showed  themselves  as  capable  of  in- 
tolerance as  the  most  orthodox,  and  instances  were  not  unknown  where 
families  were  divided,  and  the  member  who  had  united  with  an  orthodox 
church  was  cast  out  of  the  home  circle.  In  this  white  heat  of  contro- 
versy all  sorts  of  opprobrium  rained  down  upon  the  orthodox.  Their 
doctrines  were  caricatured,  their  conduct  slandered.  Dr.  Beecher  himself 
came  in  for  a  large  share  of  this  abuse,  which  he  accepted  with  the  most 
vigorous  cheerfulness.  He  says  of  this  time,  "  I  cared  no  more  for  it 
than  for  the  wind.  I  knew  where  I  was  and  what  I  was  doing,  and  that 
I  was  right.  I  used  to  think  sometimes,  as  I  walked  the  streets,  If  you 
could  know  anything  vile  about  me,  you  would  scream  for  joy  ;  but  you 
don't.  All  sorts  of  vile  letters  were  written  to  me  by  abandoned  people, 
but  all  this  malignity  did  us  no  harm."  About  this  time,  a  caricature  of 
Dr.  Beecher  was  exhibited  in  the  shop-windows  of  Boston,  representing 
him  with  two  faces  on  one  head  :  on  one  side  black  and  with  a  fierce  and 
threatening  scowl,  grasping  thunderbolts  and  forked  lightnings,  while  on 
the  other  side  he  exhibited  a  meek,  fair  ftice,  and  held  out  in  his  hand 
an  olive  branch.  When  Dr.  Beecher  preached  his  six  sermons  on  intem- 
perance preparatory  to  a  series  of  temperance  efforts  among  the  churches 
of  the  State,  the  indignation  of  all  the  makers,  venders,  and  drinkers  of 
ardent  spirits  was  arrayed  against  him. 

As  an  indication  of  popular  feeling  at  this  time,  it  is  remembered  that 
when  Hanover  Street  Church  was  destroyed  by  fire,  the  firemen  sat  on 
their  engines  around  the  blazing  ruins  and  sung  a  parody  of  a  well- 
known  hymn  — 

"  While  Beecher's  house  holds  out  to  burn 
The  vilest  sinner  maj'  return." 

Besides  Dr.  Beecher's  constant  preaching,  three  times  every  Sunday 
and  several  evenings  every  week,  he  wrote  and  published  various  ser- 
mons, essays,  and  reviews  in  the  "  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims,"  which  cost  him 
much  research,  study,  and  care.  He  attacked  the  decision  in  the  Groton 
case,  and  exhibited  its  inconsistency  with  the  spirit  and  history  of  Massa- 
chusetts law  from  the  founding  of  the  State.  Subsequent  judges  have 
so  modified  this  decision  that  churches  are  no  longer  exposed  to  this 
form  of  intolerance. 

Dr.  Beecher  also  preached  a  series  of  sermons  exposing  the  designs  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  taking  possession  of  America,  and  rous- 
ing the  churches  to  conti'ary  efforts.  In  addition  to  all  the  other  excite- 
ment about  him,  these  sermons  roused  the  wrath  of  the  Irish  population, 
and  threats  of  violence  were  freely  showered  upon  him,  without  in  the 
least  disturbing  his  equanimity. 

The  last  one  or  two  years  of  his  Boston  pastorate,  there  gathered  in 


Cext.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECHER.  721 

the  moral  firmament  signs  of  an  approaching  controversy,  which  was 
subsequently  to  divide  the  orthodox  ranks.  Dr.  Beecher  saw  the  first  in- 
dications, feared  and  deplored  them,  spent  much  time,  and  wrote  many 
letters  to  avert  such  an  evil. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  whole  history  of  Dr.  Beecher's  ministry,  that 
the  bent  of  his  mind  was  more  for  practical  efficiency  than  for  dogmatic 
construction.  To  persuade  men  to  become  Christians  and  lead  the  Chris- 
tian life  was  his  one  object,  and  he  valued  doctrines  only  as  means  to 
that  end.  With  a  mind  strictly  logical  and  keenly  perceptive,  he  no 
sooner  came  to  apply  the  received  doctrines  of  Calvinism  to  individual 
cases,  than  his  modes  of  presentation  and  statement  varied  often  from 
the  formulas  of  old  standards.  The  views  wrought  out  by  an  attempt 
to  apply  the  teachings  of  the  gospel  to  living  souls  were  soon  felt  to  be 
different  from  the  technical  and  metaphysical  statements  which  had  been 
spun  into  systems  by  theologians  in  their  closets. 

His  intimate  friend  and  fellow-laborer.  Dr.  Taylor,  now  stood  at  the 
head  of  a  new  school  of  theology  in  ISew  Haven,  Connecticut,  which 
was  exciting  great  sensation  in  the  theological  world,  and  before  long 
Dr.  Beecher  began  to  find  himself  an  object  of  suspicion  and  solicitude 
among  brethren  who  had  hitherto  only  admired  and  approved. 

The  whole  basis  of  religious  thought  and  controversy  has  now  so 
shifted  its  ground,  that  it  is  difficult  for  the  modern  student  to  appreciate 
the  intensity  of  feeling  which,  for  some  years,  convulsed  all  the  theolog- 
ical mind  of  the  United  States,  concerning  the  doctrines  of  man's  free 
agency  and  ability  and  God's  sovereignty. 

On  the  one  side,  men  of  action,  who  worked  for  results,  contended  that 
man  was  absolutely  free,  and  able  at  all  points  to  fulfill  all  the  require- 
ments, of  both  law  and  gospel ;  and  on  the  other  side,  the  metaphysi- 
cians asserted  that  these  views  destroyed  the  divine  sovereignty.  The 
men  who  worked  for  results  exhorted  people  to  study  the  Bible,  pray, 
attend  the  ministry  of  the  "Word,  with  good  hope  of  thereby  attaining 
to  Christian  life ;  while  the  opposite  party  mustered  in  alarm  all  the  old 
statements  of  confessions  of  faith,  which  one  and  all  are  similar  in  spirit 
to  this  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  :  "  Works  done  before  the 
grace  of  Christ  and  the  inspiration  of  his  Spirit  are  not  pleasant  to 
God,  forasmuch  as  they  spring  not  from  faith  in  Christ,  nor  do  they 
make  men  meet  to  receive  grace,  yea,  rather,  forasmuch  as  they  are  not 
done  as  God  hath  willed  and  commanded  them  to  be  done,  we  doubt  not 
but  they  have  the  nature  of  sin." 

The  theological  mind  of  America  was  at  issue  on  these  points,  one 
part  insisting  on  man's  absolute  inability  to  good  and  dependence  on  the 
Spirit  of  God,  and  the  other  side  insisting  that  God  never  commanded 
man  to  do  what  he  was  not  fully  able  to  perform.  Princeton  taught  the 
extreme  form  of  the  old  conservative  side,  and  New  Haven  the  extreme 
46 


722  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

of  the  advanced  New  England  theology,  while  Andover  held  a  middle 
ground  between  the  two.  Meanwhile  a  design  had  arisen  in  the  hearts 
of  some  Christian  men  to  establish,  at  Cincinnati,  a  theological  seminary 
for  supplying  ministers  to  the  Western  States,  and  they  made  overtures 
to  Dr.  Beecher,  as  the  man  of  all  others  to  conduct  this  enterprise. 

Speaking  of  this  time,  he  says,  "  There  was  not  a  place  on  earth  but 
that  that  I  would  have  opened  my  ears  to  for  a  moment.  But  I  had  felt 
and  thought  and  labored  a  great  deal  about  raising  up  ministers,  and  the 
thought  that  I  might  be  called  to  teach  the  young  ministry  of  the  broad 
West  flashed  through  my  mind  like  lightning.  I  went  home,  ran  in  and 
found  E alone  in  the  sitting-room.  I  was  in  such  a  state  of  emo- 
tion and  excitement  that  I  could  not  speak,  and  she  was  alarmed.  At 
last  I  told  her.  It  was  the  greatest  thought  that  ever  entered  my  soul ; 
it  filled  and  displaced  everything  else." 

The  state  of  his  people,  whose  church  had  just  been  burned  down, 
and  who  were  depending  on  him  to  assist  in  rebuilding  and  gathering  to- 
gether in  a  new  location,  made  it  impossible  at  this  time  to  entertain  the 
project.  But  after  the  church  had  been  rebuilt,  and  the  affairs  of  the  so- 
ciety were  in  prosperous  order,  the  jjroposal  was  made  again.  It  was  an 
application  to  leave  a  situation  where  he  enjoyed  every  worldly  advan- 
tage. He  had  conquered  a  position  in  Boston.  He  was  sure  there  of 
an  ample  and  generous  support  for  his  family,  he  was  surrounded  by  an 
admiring  and  loving  church  and  congregation,  associated  with  brethren 
in  the  ministry  whom  he  ardently  loved,  and  who  loved  and  respected 
him  in  return.  All  this  he  renounced  for  missionary  work  in  founding  a 
new  institution  in  a  Western  State  hundreds  of  miles  away. 

Among  Dr.  Beecher's  private  papers  was  found  a  most  affecting  and 
solemn  appeal  to  God,  written  at  this  time,  in  which  he  poured  forth  all 
his  feelings  as  a  child  to  a  parent :  "  Thou  knowest  the  burning  desire 
of  my  heart  for  the  West,  and  the  burden  of  my  soul  for  the  millions  of 
my  countrymen  there  are  not  hid  from  Thee.  To  my  tears  Thou  hast 
been  witness,  and  to  my  great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow,  which 
cannot  be  uttered,  for  my  country  and  for  this  whole,  most  miserable 
world,  —  Thou  Lord  knowest.  I  do,  therefore,  now  consecrate  myself  to 
Thee,  O  Lord  my  Saviour  and  my  God,  in  the  service  to  which  I  trust 
Thou  hast  called  me,  in  raising  up  the  foundations  of  thy  kingdom  at 
the  West.  I  accept  in  thy  sight,  and  for  thy  sake  and  thy  kingdom,  the 
call  to  Lane  Seminary,  and  the  call  to  the  church  in  Cincinnati,  which 
Thou  hast  purchased  by  thy  blood :  and  I  resign  to  Thee  the  church 
and  people  whom  Thou  hast  given  me  here,  who  are  ineffably  dear  to  me, 
and  this  city,  the  scene  of  many  conflicts,  where  Thou  hast  guided,  sus- 
tained, and  defended  me  ;  all  these  churches,  some  of  which  have  risen 
by  my  instrumentality,  and  all  those  ministers  whom  I  have  loved  and 
who  have  loved  and  aided  me,  —  especially  those  dearly  beloved  brethren 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEE  CHER.  723 

iu  the  ministry,  with  whom  I  have  seen  eye  to  eye.     Lord,  at  thy  bid^ 
ding  I  resign  them  all  to  thy  care  and  keeping." 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  he  laid  before  the  church  his  decision  to  re- 
move to  the  West. 

In  this  address  he  thus  states  the  ground  of  his  acceptance :  "  The 
exigencies  of  our  country  demand  seminaries,  expositions  of  doctrine, 
and  preachers  of  such  zeal  and  activity  as  guarantee,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  the  continued  effusion  of  his  Spirit.  And  the  question  whether 
the  leading  seminary  of  the  West  shall  be  one  which  inculcates  ortho- 
doxy, with  or  without  revivals,  is,  in  my  view,  a  question  of  as  great  im- 
portance as  was  ever  permitted  to  a  single  human  mind  to  decide.  If  I 
accept,  I  consider  the  question  settled,  that  a  revival  seminary  takes  the 
lead,  so  much  as  probably  to  give  a  complexion  forever  to  the  doctrines 
and  revivals  in  that  great  world." 

In  estimating  his  fitness  for  the  work  he  reviews  his  ministerial  career: 
"  For  the  first  ten  years  preaching  to  a  congregation  of  implicit  believers 
in  the  doctrines  and  revivals,  ....  but  in  the  presence  of  a  crafty  cavil- 
ing infidelity,  which  had  led  away  nearly  the  whole  generation  of  young 
men ;  the  greater  portion  of  whom  I  left  members  of  the  church,  and 
nearly  all  of  them  rescued  from  infidelity  and  settled  in  the  doctrines  of 
the  gospel ;  the  next  sixteen  years,  in  a  field  where  my  predecessor  had 
pushed  the  unexplained  points  of  hyper-Calvinism  to  the  confines  of  Anti- 
nomianism,  throwing  off  some  to  Arminianism,  and  embodying  others 
into  a  band  of  doubting,  chafed  murmurers,  —  all  of  whom,  during  my 
ministry,  or  since,  have  become  convinced  of  the  truth,  and  become  mem- 
bers of  the  church.  The  last  six  years  I  have  been  explaining  and  vin- 
dicating the  same  system  where,  to  a  fearful  extent,  all  definite  belief  in 
the  Bible  and  its  doctrines  had  ceased,  and  where  all  the  great  elements 
of  moral  government  and  all  efficient  sense  of  responsibility  had  passed 
away,  and  if  I  may  trust  my  own  observations,  and  that  of  others,  not 
without  marked  indications  of  a  return  of  public  sentiment  to  the  Bible, 
its  doctrines  and  institutions. 

"  The  result  has  been,  that,  though  I  have  never  been  immured  with 
books  in  my  study,  or  occupied  as  a  disputant  in  theological  controversy, 
yet  my  mind  has  been  constantly  exercised  and  disciplined  in  the  exposi- 
tion for  popular  apprehension,  and  the  application  for  saving  purposes,  of 
the  great  doctrines  of  the  Reformation ;  and  when  I  look  back  and  see 
that  one  third  of  my  ministry  has  been  occupied  in  the  labors  of  revivals 
among  my  own  people,  I  have  dared  to  hope  that  in  my  mode  of  ex- 
plaining and  applying  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  I  have  been  guided  by 
the  Spirit,  and  the  call  now  made  upon  me  to  write  upon  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  a  new  generation  of  ministers  the  results  of  an  extended  ex- 
perience leads  me  to  inquire  whether  He,  who  sees  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning, may  not  have  been  preparing  me  for  the  self-same  thing  by  the 
unusual  vicissitudes  of  my  ministry." 


724  THE   CHURCirS  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Peuiod  V. 

lu  conclusion,  Dr.  Beecher  alluded  briefly  to  the  threatened  controver- 
sial division  among  the  orthodox  of  New  England.  He  expressed  his 
belief  that  the  dilfereuces  between  the  two  parties  had  been  exagger- 
ated ;  that  "  though  there  were  shades  of  difference  among  ministers,  they 
respected  circumstantials,  not  fundamentals,  and  are  not  inconsistent  with 
revivals  and  the  blessing  of  God  on  either  side." 

"  And  when,"  he  added,  "  I  see  the  cause  of  temperance,  and  missions, 
and  revivals,  all  moving  the  right  way,  and  such  dark  clouds  dispelled  as 
just  now  threatened  over  a  great  portion  of  the  churcli,  ....  I  cannot 
believe  God  intends  to  give  up  the  ministers  of  New  England  to  the  in- 
fatuated madness  and  folly  of  rushing  into  an  angry  controversy ;  and  if 
they  should  do  it,  I  could  not  perceive  it  to  be  my  duty  to  remain  and 
wear  out  my  strength  and  spirit  in  contending  with  good  men. 

"  Against  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  I  can  lift  up  the  spear  with  good 
will,  but  with  the  friends  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  I  cannot  find  it  in  my 
heart  to  enter  into  controversy,  —  no,  I  cannot  do  it  —  I  cannot  do  it." 

Dr.  Beecher's  church,  trained  by  their  pastor  in  missionary  spirit,  ac- 
knowledged the  needs  and  superior  claims  of  the  great  West,  and  resigned 
their  beloved  pastor  to  the  work  in  a  spirit  of  love  and  prayer. 

On  the  14th  of  November,  1832,  Dr.  Beecher  with  his  family  arrived  in 
Cincinnati.  Here  he  assumed  at  the  same  time  the  position  of  pastor  to 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  and  president  of  the  new  theological 
seminary,  situated  on  Walnut  Hills,  about  two  miles  from  the  city. 
Here  Dr.  Beecher  spent  nineteen  years,  —  the  most  trying,  perplexing, 
laborious,  and  stormy  period  of  his  life. 

It  would  seem  as  if  every  element  of  discord  and  debate  were  let  loose 
like  the  winds  from  the  cave  of  iEolus,  to  swoop  down  upon  the  infant 
enterprise. 

Lane  Seminary  was  upon  the  borders  of  a  slave  state,  and  the  slav- 
ery controversy  was  even  then  shaking  the  land  as  with  an  earthquake. 
The  Presbyterian  Church,  a  large  proportion  of  whose  Southern  mem- 
bers were  slaveholders,  was  surging  and  heaving  with  wild  excitement 
upon  this  subject,  and  every  meeting  of  a  general  assembly  was  dis- 
tracted and  almost  convulsed  by  it ;  and  it  was  during  Dr.  Beecher's  first 
seven  years  of  labor  that  the  crisis  came  which  finally  rent  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  twain. 

The  theological  controversy  which  Dr.  Beecher  had  dreaded,  and  from 
which  he  had  hoped  to  withdraw,  burst  out  immediately  with  renewed 
vigor  on  his  arrival  at  the  West.  The  new  school  doctrines  and  the  old 
school  doctrines  began  to  array  their  lines  of  battle  through  the  whole 
United  States.  The  old  school  party  formed  an  alliance,  offensive  and 
defensive,  with  the  proslavery  party  in  the  South  to  resist  the  agitating 
efforts  of  the  abolitionists.  The  new  school  body,  preaching  imme- 
diate repentance  and  forsaking  of  sin,  denounced  slavery  as  sin  against 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEECHER.  725 

God,  calling  for  immediate  repentance,  and  requiring  ecclesiastical  dis- 
cipline.^    The  antislavery  party  at  this  time  was  in  tv70  divisions  :  — 

(1.)  Those  outside  of  all  existing  organizations  who  denounced  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  a  covenant  with  death,  and  an  agree- 
ment with  hell,  and  the  church  as  a  den  of  thieves.  At  the  head  of  this 
party  stood  Garrison  and  the  "  Liberator." 

(2.)  Those  who,  like  Charles  Sumner  in  the  state  and  Dr.  Albert 
Barnes  in  the  church,  deemed  it  their  duty  to  remain  in  existing  organ- 
izations, and  endeavor  to  use  them  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  eman- 
cij^ation.     In  this  party  Dr.  Beecher  was  a  leader. 

Immediately  on  his  arrival  in  Cincinnati  he  was  beset  on  one  side  by 
the  theological  attack  of  the  "  old  school "  party,  and  on  the  other  by  the 
no  less  dangerous  attacks  of  the  radical  abolitionists.  Dr.  Joshua  Wilson, 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Cincinnati,  brought  charges  of 
heresy  against  him  in  the  Cincinnati  Presbytery,  and  he  underwent  a 
public  trial.  He  was  acquitted  in  presbytery,  and  the  case  appealed 
to  synod ;  acquitted  in  synod,  it  was  appealed  to  the  general  assembly, 
where  at  last  Dr.  "Wilson  was  induced  to  withdraw  his  charges,  and  Dr. 
Beecher  was  suffered  to  go  clear.  Thus,  for  a  space  of  three  years, 
the  controversy  with  good  men  which  he  deprecated  was  forced  upon 
him,  and  the  time  which  he  had  hoped  to  give  to  revivals  of  religion 
and  the  conversion  of  souls  was  consumed  in  writing  theological  state- 
ments and  defenses. 

Meanwhile  slavery  agitation  was  introduced  into  the  youthful  seminary, 
by  the  inception  of  a  large  class  of  pupils  of  the  Oneida  Manual  Labor 
Institute,  under  the  leadership  of  Theodore  Weld.  This  class  discussed 
the  subject  of  slavery  for  nine  consecutive  nights,  and  began  immediate 
labors  among  the  free  colored  population  of  Cincinnati. 

As  only  a  river  separated  that  city  from  slave  territory,  the  reaction 
was  immediate.  Lane  Seminary  was  threatened  with  demolition,  and  at 
that  period  there  was  the  best  reason  in  the  world  for  believing  that  the 
threat  would  be  executed.  In  those  days  a  mob  from  across  the  Ohio 
twice  destroyed  the  antislavery  printing-press  of  Dr.  Bailey,  throwing 
his  types  into  the  Ohio  River.  They  promenaded  the  streets  of  Cincin- 
nati, abusing  and  threatening  the  free  colored  people,  so  that  respectable 
families  found  it  difficult  to  save  the  lives  of  their  own  servants.  There 
was  no  efficient  interference  of  city  authorities  ;  no  retribution  in  courts 
of  justice  for  such  acts,  and  had  the  mob  fulfilled  their  threats  of  burning 
down  Lane  Seminary  there  would  have  been  no  legal  redress. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  cannot  be  wondered  at  that  the  trustees 
of  the  seminary,  as  legal  guardians  of  the  property,  took  the  matter  into 
their  own  hands,  and,  in  the  absence  of  Dr.  Beecher  and  the  faculty  dur- 

1  Chiefly  true  of  the  Southern  old  school  and  the  Northern  new  school.  But  many 
Northern  old  school,  as  Drs.  MacMaster  and  Thomas,  were  for  abolition,  and  most  Southern 
new  school,  as  Dr.  Ross,  were  strongly  for  slavery. 


726  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

ing  a  summer  vacation,  passed  votes  whose  eifect  was  designed  to  stop 
the  antislaveiy  discussion  in  the  seminary,  and  the  antislavery  labors  of 
its  students  in  the  community. 

These  laws,  passed  during  Dr.  Beecher's  absence,  caused  the  secession 
from  the  seminary  of  a  class  of  forty  young  men.  His  utmost  powers 
of  mediation  were  used  on  his  return  with  both  parties  in  vain.  The 
young  men  left,  and  went  to  Oberlin,  and  there  formed  the  nucleus  of  a 
new  theological  seminary  ;  and  thus  in  fact  Dr.  Beecher's  removal  to  the 
"West  was  the  means  of  founding  two  theological  schools  instead  of  one. 

Dr.  Beecher's  conduct  on  this  occasion  has  been  severely  criticised. 
The  extreme  abolitionists  contended  that  he  and  his  fellow  professors 
ought  to  have  followed  the  example  of  the  students  and  resigned  their 
professorships.  But  this  in  effect  would  have  been  to  surrender  the  insti- 
tution to  the  defenders  and  allies  of  slavery.  Dr.  Beecher  felt  it  his  duty 
to  hold  the  fort  for  better  things. 

The  landed  endowments  of  the  seminary  were  rich,  but  they  were  in 
great  part  the  gift  of  a  family  who,  with  one  exception,  then  belonged 
to  the  old  school  party,  and  bitterly  repented  the  donation,  and  only 
waited  for  some  legal  pretext  to  recover  the  possession.  Had  they 
been  able  to  prove  that  the  institution,  instead  of  fulfilling  the  purposes 
stated  in  its  charter,  had  been  in  effect  changed  into  an  abolition  propa- 
ganda, they  could  have  brought  suits  with  a  fair  pretext ;  and  there  was 
at  that  time  little  favor  to  be  hoped  from  the  decision  of  courts.  Dr. 
Beecher  was  at  all  times  an  open  and  avowed  antislavery  man.  Lane 
Seminary,  from  tlie  first,  received  colored  students  on  equal  footing  with 
whites  ;  and  a  former  slave,  named  James  Bradley,  was  a  member  of  the 
very  first  class,  and  treated  with  especial  consideration  by  faculty  and 
students. 

Those  professors  who  were  especially  called  by  Dr.  Beecher  to  his 
side  were  also  outspoken  and  decided  antislavery  men  ;  and  he  soon  had 
laboring  with  him,  as  ministers  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  five  sons, 
all  outspoken  and  determined  abolitionists,  and  each  in  his  sphere  doing 
their  utmost  in  pulpit  and  ecclesiastical  meetings  to  intensify  the  anti- 
slavery  feeling  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  may  well,  therefore,  be  a 
question  whether  the  antislavery  influence  of  Dr.  Beecher  and  his  family 
was  not  in  their  chosen  line  and  sjDhere  quite  as  efficient  a  factor  in  the 
final  result,  as  those  of  the  radical  abolitionists. 

For  a  while,  however,  the  interests  of  Lane  Seminary  suffered  on 
all  hands.  The  attacks  on  Dr.  Beecher's  orthodoxy  alarmed  some  ;  the 
ultra  abolitionists  were  disgusted  because  the  seminary  did  no  more  in 
the  cause  of  the  slave ;  the  proslavery  party  threatened  its  destruction 
because  it  did  so  much.  The  classes  from  1836  to  1840  were  sensibly 
diminished  in  numbers,  and  in  1837  tlie  failure  of  Arthur  Tappan  de- 
prived the  institution  of  the  divinity  professorship,  on  the  income  of 
which  Dr.  Beecher's  salary  depended. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEE  CHER.  727 

In  one  of  tlie  doctor's  commonplace  books  was  found  entered  the  fol- 
lowing memorandum  :  "  I  have  this  morning  received  a  letter  from  New 
York,  informing  me  that  my  draft  on  Mr.  Tappan  has  been  dishonored 
on  account  of  his  suspension  of  payment.     Thus  has  the  ground  of  my 

support  failed But  my  confidence  that  it  was  the  will   of  God 

that  I  should  come  here  has  not  failed,  my  confidence  that  the  end  of 
my  coming  would  be  the  establishment  of  Lane  Seminary  has  not  failed, 
and  my  confidence  that  God  was  well  pleased  with  my  coming,  and  ap- 
proved my  motive,  and  will  sustain  me  in  my  life  of  dependence  on  Him 
as  He  has  done,  has  not  failed.  And  though  one  half  a  needed  income  has 
suddenly  stopped,  and  I  know  not  precisely  in  what  manner  my  wants 
are  to  be  supplied,  I  desire  to  praise  Him  who  has  clothed  and  fed  me 
and  mine  to  this  day,  that  I  do  not  distrust  Him,  but  am  cheerful  and 
happy  in  my  confidence  in  Him,  whose  I  am  and  whom  I  serve." 

Meanwhile  the  great  under-current  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  was 
steadily  drifting  towards  disunion,  for  in  this  same  year,  1837,  the  gen- 
eral assembly,  meeting  in  Philadelphia,  passed  a  resolution  to  cite  before 
them  all  those  presbyteries  and  synods  that  were  suspected  of  heresy, 
the  ministers  and  the  elders  of  all  such  synods  to  be  deprived  of  a  seat 
in  the  next  general  assembly.  By  this  method  four  synods,  covering  two 
thirds  of  New  York  and  part  of  Ohio,  were  "  exscinded,"  numbering  five 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  churches  and  fifty-seven  thousand  communicants. 
While  heresies  in  doctrine  were  the  nominal  cause  of  this  attack,  it  is  to 
be  remarked  that  the  synods  thus  indicated  were  those  that  had  been  in 
the  front  ranks  of  the  antislavery  protest.  Private  letters  from  leading 
Southern  clergymen  had  already  explained  that  Southern  members  could 
not  and  would  not  longer  tolerate  a  union  with  abolitionists,  and  this 
bigh-handed  proceeding  was  the  means  of  effecting  a  separation. 

In  1838,  therefore,  Dr.  Beecher  was  at  the  decisive  meeting  of  the 
general  assembly.  The  roll  of  the  assembly  was  called,  omitting  the 
four  synods.  Their  representatives  offered  their  commissions,  which 
were  refused  without  explanation.  Immediately  the  new  school  portion 
rose  and  read  a  declaration  to  the  effect  that  whereas,  contrary  to  law, 
certain  synods  are  denied  a  seat  in  the  assembly,  "  We  now  proceed  to 
organize  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United 
States  of  America  with  as  little  disturbance  as  possible."  Moderator 
and  clerks  being  elected,  the  new  school  proclaimed  that  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United  States  was  now  or- 
ganized, and  would  proceed  forthwith  to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  new  school  assembly  marched  down  the  aisle,  the  greater  part  of  the 
throng  following  them,  and  walked  in  procession  to  the  First  Church. 
Thus  were  the  new  and  old  school  assemblies  divided,  and  so  com- 
pletely was  it  a  question  other  than  that  of  doctrine,^  that  there  remained 
in  the  new  school  church  only  three  presbyteries  in  slave-holding  States. 

1  The  "Minutes"  make  it  largely  a  question  of  church  order.  Thus  regarded  the  ex- 
scinding, however  severe,  may  not  have  been  "highhanded,"  but  constitutional.  —  H.  M.  M. 


728  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

It  was  a  dramatic  and  striking  attendant  on  this  event,  that  the  day  of 
the  disunion  Liberty  Hall  was  in  flames,  set  on  fire  by  the  proslavery 
mob,  and  the  next  day  the  African  Hall  on  Thirteenth  Street  was  on 
fire,  the  mob  cutting  the  hose  to  prevent  its  destruction. 

As  usual,  in  those  days,  there  was  no  efficient  resistance  of  the  author- 
ities to  these  outrages,  and  the  blame  of  the  whole  ti-ausaction  was 
thrown  upon  the  abolitionists. 

The  decision  as  to  which  body  was  to  be  recognized  as  the  Presby- 
terian Church  was  appealed  to  the  courts  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  first  decision  in  the  Nisi  Prius  term,  under  Judge  Rodgers,  was  in 
favor  of  the  new  school.  The  court  in  bank,  however,  reversed  this  de- 
cision in  favor  of  the  old  school.  A  suit  of  ejectment  was  now  com- 
menced against  the  officers  of  Lane  Seminary,  as  not  belonging  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United  States.  The  Hon.  S.  P.  Chase  argued 
the  case  in  favor  of  Lane  Seminary,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  decision 
that  placed  the  institution  on  firm  legal  grounds  for  all  time.  From  this 
time  the  difficulties  in  the  establishment  of  the  seminary  were  substantially 
overcome. 

In  1839  Dr.  Beecher  returned  with  enthusiasm  and  success  to  his 
labors  as  a  revival  preacher.  He  visited  Oxford  College,  and  spent  there 
two  happy  weeks  preaching  and  conversing  with  religious  inquirers.  It 
was  estimated  that  at  this  time  there  were  over  one  hundred  converts, 
eighty  from  the  college.  In  his  private  memoranda  Dr.  Beecher  thus 
speaks :  "  The  Lord  has  permitted  the  accumulation  upon  me  for  the  last 
few  years,  in  domestic  and  public  cai'es,  anxieties,  and  labors,  a  greater 
pressure  of  responsibility  and  suspense,  of  baffled  plans  and  hopes,  than 
ever  before  in  my  life ;  and  withal  in  a  state  far  distant,  among  strangers, 
and  remote  from  the  cheering  sympathy  of  that  host  of  friends  who  had 
grown  up  around  me,  and  on  whom  the  slanders  and  misrepresentations 
of  alienated  friends  and  the  conspiracy  of  religious  party  spirit  could 
have  no  influence  to  embarrass  my  success.  In  the  mean  time  my  mind 
and  body  were  tasked  by  responsibilities  sufficient  for  the  time  and  re- 
sources of  two  men Often  has  been  the  time  when  I  thought  the 

last  cord  was  broken,  and  my  last  work  on  earth  done ;  and  now  if  any 
man  can  say  it,  I  can  say.  Having  obtained  help  of  God  I  continue  to 
this  day.  I  trust  God  is  preparing  for  me  at  the  West  a  more  open 
door  with  less  distraction  from  adversaries,  ....  where  the  cooperation 
of  cordial  friends  will  affisrd  me  opportunities  of  cheerful  efficient  ac- 
tion." 

From  this  time,  the  course  of  the  seminary  became  every  year  more 
prosperous.  Two  professors  had  resigned  during  the  season  of  discour- 
agement, and  their  places  were  filled  by  young  men  who  brought  vigor 
and  strength  to  the  institution.  The  lines  being  now  thoroughly  drawn 
between  the  old  and  new  school  parties,  the   theological  controversy 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  LYMAN  BEE  CHER.  729 

ceased,  and  tbe  churches  set  themselves  quietly  to  the  culture  of  spiritual 
religion.  The  young  colleges  of  the  West,  Jacksonville,  Marietta,  Craw- 
fordsville,  Oxford,  and  Western  Reserve,  were  in  sympathy  vrith  the 
seminary,  and  sent  a  yearly  increasing  number  of  students.  Powerful 
revivals  of  religion  began  to  be  heard  of  through  the  churches,  and  the 
students  from  Lane  exhibited  a  truly  evangelical  enthusiasm  in  meeting 
the  labors  and  hardships  incident  to  establishing  new  churches  in  a  new 
country;  so  that  Dr.  Beecher,  writing  to  a  friend  in  1842,  says,  "The 
Lord  has  delivered  and  prospered,  so  that  I  look  back  on  all,  as  the  ship 
looks  back  on  squalls  and  head  winds  past,  when  favoring  gales  give  her 
a  prosperous  course." 

The  difficulties  which  Dr.  Beecher  encountered  during  these  seven 
stormy  years  that  established  Lane  Seminary  were  enough  to  have  wholly 
broken  down  a  less  determined  man.  In  the  very  midst  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical trial,  his  wife,  the  mother  of  four  of  his  children,  sunk  under  the 
debilitating  Western  climate,  and  died.  Rumors  most  unfavorable  to  him 
were  circulated  through  all  the  circle  of  his  Eastern  friends,  exposing  him 
to  a  constant  galling  fire  of  letters  of  alarm,  inquiry,  and  remonstrance; 
The  foundation  of  his  pecuniary  support  gave  way ;  students  were  indus- 
triously prevented  from  joining  the  seminary  ;  some  of  the  professors  left 
in  despair ;  and  in  all  this  stress  of  weather  the  only  man  who  did  not  for 
an  instant  lose  hope  and  courage,  or  admit  the  thought  of  abandoning  the 
enterprise,  was  Dr.  Beecher. 

He  worked,  said  Professor  Stowe,  during  all  these  years  like  a  Her- 
cules. Disappointment  followed  disappointment,  obstacle  was  piled  on 
obstacle.  Ossa  piled  on  Pelion,  and  Olympus  on  Ossa ;  friends  fell  off, 
foes  multiplied ;  endowments  diminished,  and  salaries  ceased ;  prejudices 
were  inflamed,  and  students  kept  away.  Still  he  was  hopeful  and  jovial, 
always  good-natured  and  never  irritated.  If  students  would  not  offer 
themselves  he  would  go  after  them ;  if  regular  income  failed  he  would 
beg ;  if  he  could  not  clamber  over  an  obstacle  he  would  go  round  it  or 
dig  through  it ;  disappointed  in  one  thing  he  would  hope  for  another  that 
would  surely  be  better  when  he  got  it.  He  was  not  only  hopeful  and 
cheerful,  but  a  spring  of  hope  and  cheer  to  all  around  him,  and  the  sound 
of  his  rapid  elastic  footstep,  and  the  ring  of  his  confident  tones,  seemed 
to  inspire  courage  wherever  he  came. 

He  fulfilled  to  the  letter  his  own  advice  to  his  students :  "  When  things 
are  so  bad  and  so  dark  that  it  seems  as  if  you  could  n't  hold  out  another 
minute  —  don't  let  go  then  —  you  may  be  sure  a  change  is  coming,  and 
many  a  cause  has  been  lost  because  a  man  could  n't  hold  on." 

In  May,  1851,  Dr.  Beecher  resigned  the  presidency  of  Lane  Seminary, 
which  he  left  well  established  and  prosperous,  and  returned  to  New  Eng- 
land, where  he  devoted  himself  to  the  labor  of  preparing  his  works  for 
the  press.     For  several  years  he  continued  to  preach  occasionally,  and  to 


730  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

labor  in  revivals.  When  he  was  no  longer  able  to  do  this  he  settled  in 
Brooklyn,  and  became  a  constant  attendant  on  the  preachings  and  prayer 
meetings  in  Plymouth  Church.  To  hear  his  own  son  continuing  in  the 
course  begun  under  his  teachings  was  almost  as  good  as  to  be  young 
himself. 

Gradually  his  power  of  expression  failed,  and  his  mind  was  overclouded 
and  wandering,  but  the  ruling  passion  was  still  strong  in  him.  A  friend 
seeing  him  sitting  as  he  often  sat,  as  if  in  deep  thought,  said,  "  Dr. 
Beecher,  you  know  a  great  deal ;  tell  us  what  is  the  greatest  of  all  things." 
His  eye  flashed,  his  face  kindled,  and  he  said,  "  It  is  not  theology,  it 
is  not  controversy,  but  it  is  to  save  souls  ! "  To  save  souls  had  been 
from  first  to  last  the  passion  of  his  life. 

A  short  time  before  his  death  the  veil  that  had  settled  over  his  mind 
was  suddenly  rent,  and  he  had  a  full  enjoyment  of  the  Beatific  Vision ;  a 
vision  not  of  earthly  glory  or  physical  brightness,  but  of  the  perfections 
of  God.  His  face  became  radiant,  his  utterance  strong.  He  said,  "I 
have  begun  to  go.  Oh,  such  scenes  !  I  have  seen  the  King  in  his  beauty ! 
Blessed  God  for  revealing  Thyself.  How  wonderful  that  a  creature  can 
appi-oach  the  Creator  so  as  to  awake  in  his  likeness  !  "  He  spoke  of  each 
of  his  children,  and  left  his  parting  blessing  upon  them.  From  this  ec- 
stasy he  fell  into  a  sweet  sleep,  his  face  still  illumined  with  a  solemn  and 
divine  radiance,  and  so  in  his  eighty-seventh  year  he  entered  into  rest.  — 
H.  B.  S. 


LIFE   XXIV.     CHARLES   FINNEY. 

A.  D.   1792-A.    D.    1875.       CONGUEGATIONAL, AMERICA. 

There  was  nothing  extraordinary  about  the  circumstances  attending 
the  birth  and  early  life  of  the  subject  of  this  story,  to  warrant  the  ex- 
pectation that  he  would  be  a  man  of  special  mark,  or  wield  any  unusual 
influence.  But  the  most  casual  reader  of  this  brief  record  of  a  life  abound- 
ing in  labors  rewarded  with  peculiar  success  will  not  fail  to  be  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  Providence  raised  up  this  man,  and  endowed  him  with 
rare  gifts  for  a  special  and  great  mission.  Charles  Finney  was  born  in 
Son  of  a  New  ^.he  little  town  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  August  29,  1792. 
England  farmer.  Hjg  f.^^her,  Sylvcster  Finney,  was  a  farmer  in  a  rather  small 
way,  and  a  good  neighbor,  a  happy,  jolly  man,  beloved  by  every  one. 
He  brought  up  a  large  family,  every  member  of  which  became  au  honest, 
law-abiding,  and  respected  citizen ;  only  one,  however,  besides  Charles, 
entering  a  i)rofession.  George,  the  youngest  of  the  sous,  was  also  a 
minister. 

Tlie  family  removed  to  Oneida  County,  New  York,  when  Charles  was 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  CHARLES  FINNEY.  731 

about  two  years  old,  and  a  few  years  later  moved  again  into  the  wilder- 
ness on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario.  Remaining  at  home  until 
about  twenty  yeai-s  of  age,  assisting  on  the  farm,  and  attending  such 
schools  as  were  occasionally  in  session  in  the  neighborhood,  Charles 
rarely  heard  a  sermon,  and  knew  little  of  religious  teaching.  Then  he 
went  into  New  Jersey,  near  New  York  city,  and  commenced  teaching. 
For  six  years  he  continued  to  teach  and  to  study,  intermitting  the  teach- 
ing at  two  or  three  different  times  to  attend  a  session  of  a  New  England 
high  school,  and  in  1818  entered  a  law  office  in  Adams,  New  York,  as 
a  student. 

In  studying  elementary  law,  he  found  frequent  reference  to  the  Script- 
ures, especially  to  the  Mosaic  Institutes,  as  authority  for  many  of  the 
principles  of  common  law.  Consequently  he  bought  a  Bible, 
the  first  he  ever  owned,  which  he  read  and  pondered  a  good  buys  his  first 
deal  in  connection  with  his  law  studies,  but  with  very  little 
comprehension  of  much  of  it.  He  now  attended  religious  services  reg- 
ularly on  the  Sabbath,  and  sometimes  the  weekly  prayer  meeting,  when 
his  duties  did  not  require  his  attention  at  the  office.  He  became  more 
and  more  interested  in  religion,  and  in  the  teachings  of  the  Bible ; 
holding  long  and  frequent  conversations  with  his  pastor  on  the  doctrinal 
points  of  the  gospel ;  reading  diligently,  and  finally  praying  earnestly 
that  he  might  know  the  right  way,  and  have  courage  to  walk  in  it.  Sud- 
denly, as  the  light  from  heaven  shone  upon  Saul  of  Tarsus,  the  gospel 
plan  of  salvation,  complete  and  full,  dawned  upon  his  mind,  and  he  ac- 
cepted the  sacx'ifice  Christ  had  made  for  him  with  a  heart  overflowing 
with  love  and  gratitude.  At  once  he  said  to  himself,  "  I  will  preach  the 
gospel."  He  gave  up  a  law  case  which  was  to  be  tried  the  next  morn- 
ing after  this  experience,  saying  to  his  client,  "•  I  have  a  retainer  from 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  jolead  his  cause,  and  I  cannot  plead  yours,"  and 
immediately  set  about  talking  with  all  whom  he  met  on  the  great  impor- 
tance of  their  souls'  salvation.  He  went  from  house  to  house  the  whole 
day,  and  several  persons  professed  conversion  from  the  hour  when  Mr. 
Finney  talked  to  them  in  his  simple,  direct,  and  earnest  way,  of  their  duty 
to  God.  The  time  was  ripe  for  the  man,  and  God  raised  him  up.  The 
whole  village  was  awakened,  and  almost  every  one  in  it,  young,  middle- 
aged,  and  old,  was  converted. 

After  some  weeks  spent  in  daily  and  hourly  labor  among  the  people, 
he  went  for  a  brief  visit  to  his  father,  who  lived  in  the  small  town  of 
Henderson.  His  father  met  him  at  the  gate  and  asked  after  his  health. 
He  replied,  "  I  am  well,  father,  but  how  is  it  that  I  never  heard  a  prayer 
in  my  father's  house  ?  "  The  old  man  dropped  his  head,  and  tears  came 
into  his  eyes,  as  he  answered,  "  Come  in,  Charles,  and  pray  yourself." 
Both  father  and  mother,  and  some  of  his  brothers  and  sisters,  became 
converts,  and  the  religious  feeling  spread  all  through  that  community 
also. 


732  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

In  the  spring  of  1822  he  put  himself  under  the  care  of  the  presbytery, 

and  as  he  had  not  means  to  go  to  Princeton,  his  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr. 

Gale,  was  appointed  his  instructor.    In  March,  1824,  he  was 

Begins  to  preach.     . 

licensed  to  preach.  Although  frankly  acknowledging  that 
he  did  not  subscribe  to  all  the  doctrines  of  the  Presbyterian  denomina- 
tion, he  did  not  fail  to  convince  all  that  he  was  called  to  preach,  the 
numerous  conversions  attending  his  lay  labors  corroborating  the  evi- 
dence. Many  men  have  preached  effectively,  and  swayed  masses  with  the 
force  and  earnestness  of  their  speech,  but  to  few  has  been  given  such  an 
array  of  physical  advantages  to  aid  them  in  their  work,  as  was  granted 
to  this  young  man,  now  about  to  go  forth  to  do  battle  against  sin  and  evil. 
Pie  was  of  tall  figure  and  majestic  presence ;  he  had  a  noble  head,  a  keen 
blue  eye,  that  could  transfix  with  its  sharp,  penetrating  gaze,  or  melt  with 
its  tenderness,  a  voice  sonorous  and  clear,  without  harshness,  and  capable 
of  stirring  the  heart  like  a  clarion,  or  of  bringing  tears  to  the  eyes  with 
its  pathetic  pleading;  above  all,  a  magnetism  which  fascinated  and  heM 
in  closest  attention  all  in  his  presence.  His  peculiar  mental  characteris- 
tics were  quickness  of  perception,  clearness  of  discrimination,  and  logical 
acuteness. 

With  these  advantages,  physical  and  mental,  and  a  soul  imbued  with 
the  love  of  God  and  of  immortal  souls,  wholly  devoted  to  his  work,  what 
was  lacking  to  make  sure  his  success  ?  He  himself  tells  us  that  he  had 
always  felt  that  the  great  need  in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  was  the 
"  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  poui-ed  out  on  the  preacher."  "  This,"  he 
says,  "  is  not  the  gift  of  tongues,  nor  the  power  to  work  miracles,  but  a 
divine  purifying,  an  anointing,  bestowing  on  its  subjects  a  divine  illumi- 
nation, filling  them  with  faith  and  love,  with  peace  and  power,"  This 
"  baptism  "  he  sought  and  found,  and  then  he  went  forth  armed  and 
equipped,  beginning  his  modest  labors  in  a  little  place  called  Evans's 
Mills,  in  Jefferson  County,  New  York.  From  this  time  on  for  a  period 
of  fifty  years,  the  record  is  one  of  constant  labor ;  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  in  church  and  by  the  way-side,  in  city  and  country,  in  this  coun- 
try and  in  England,  with  an  activity  and  intensity  that  never  faltered, 
and  a  zeal  for  God  and  the  souls  of  men  almost  without  parallel.  After 
preaching  a  short  time  at  Evans's  Mills  he  was  urged  to  go  to  Antwerp, 
an  adjacent  town.  He  accordingly  divided  his  time  between  the  two 
places,  allowing  an  occasional  evening  for  a  sermon  at  a  German  settle- 
ment near  by.  Nearly  every  soul  in  Evans's  Mills  was  brought  into  the 
church,  and  among  the  Germans  the  work  was  surprising,  several  middle- 
aged  persons  learning  to  read  that  they  might  read  the  Bible.  The  whole 
.     ,  ,  community  was  converted.     Mr.  Finney  says,  "  I  preached 

A  whole  com-  *'  j        j    '  r 

munity  con-        the  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  divinity,  his  divine  mis- 
verted.  .         ,  .  „  •' 

sion,  his  perfect  life,  his  vicarious  death,  his  resurrec- 
tion, repentance,  justification  by  faith.     I   insisted  upon   the  voluntary 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  CHARLES  FINNEY.        -  733 

total  moral  depravity  of  the  uuregenerate,  and  the  unalterable  necessity 
of  a  radical  change  of  heart,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  means  of  the 
truth." 

At  this  time  he  was  ordained  by  the  presbytery,  and  for  six  months 
labored  in  that  same  region  of  Western  New  York,  going  on  horseback 
from  town  to  town,  visiting  from  house  to  house,  attending  prayer  meet- 
ings, preaching  day  and  night.  He  says,  "  I  preached  out-of-doors,  I 
preached  in  barns,  I  preached  in  school-houses,  and  a  glorious  revival  of 
religion  spread  all  over  that  new  country."  One  element  of  his  success 
among  this  uneducated  population  was  the  simplicity  of  his  language, 
and  the  use  of  numerous  and  common  illustrations.  It  was  his  study  so 
to  present  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  which  were  made  for  every  soul  of 
man,  that  they  should  reach  the  humblest  and  most  illitei-ate,  to  make 
them  clear  to  the  comprehension  by  illustrations  such  as  would  be  most 
familiar  to  those  addressed.  He  was  blamed  at  times  for  using  too  much 
repetition,  but  he  contended  that  it  was  necessary,  especially  in  dealing 
with  minds  unused  to  consecutive  thought,  to  repeat  the  same  truth  over 
and  over  again,  at  first  to  attract  attention,  then  to  still  repeat,  until  the 
subject  was  fixed  in  their  memory.  That  there  are  now  persons  living 
who  can  not  only  tell  the  texts  from  which  he  preached  in  those  days, 
but  give  a  clear  synopsis  of  the  discourse,  proves  the  wisdom  of  his 
course. 

At  Antwerp  he  found  a  very  wicked  and  profane  community,  with 
only  three  pious  women  in  it,  one  of  whom  opened  her  parlor  for  the 
first  meeting.  In  walking  about  the  town,  a  sort  of  terror  took  hold  of 
him,  hearing  the  cursing  and  swearing  in  the  streets,  and  at  every  place 
of  business.  He  appointed  a  preaching  service  in  the  school-house  on 
Sunday,  and  on  Saturday,  while  praying  for  help  to  reach  and  save  these 
godless  people,  this  text  of.  Scripture  came  home  to  his  heart  to  comfort 
him  :  "  Be  not  afraid,  but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace ;  for  I  am  with 
thee,  and  no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee."  When  he  went  to  the 
school-house  on  the  Sabbath  morning,  he  found  it  packed  to  its  utmost 
capacity,  and  without  any  preparation  he  opened  his  pocket  Bible,  and 
read  the  text  that  offered  itself,  "  For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He 
sent  his  only  begotten  Son,"  etc.  The  people  listened  with  awed  atten- 
tion ;  they  quailed  when  he  told  them  how  they  requited  God's  love  with 
blasphemy,  and  at  last  nearly  the  whole  audience  was  in  tears.  In  the 
afternoon  he  was  invited  to  come  into  the  church,  and  from  that  time  the 
good  work  spread  in  all  directions.  Afterward  he  preached  in  Gouver- 
neur.  Western,  Eome,  Utica,  Auburn,  Troy,  New  Lebanon,  and  many 
smaller  places.  Everywhere  the  same  deep  interest  was  manifested ; 
everywhere  the  gospel  presented  in  its  simplicity,  and  with  earnestness, 
wrought  wondrous  things,  and  thousands  turned  from  evil  courses  and 
became  persistent  Christians.     Preaching  morning  and  evening,  holding 


734  THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

inquiry  meetings  after  each  service,  visiting  from  house  to  house,  some- 
times preaching  twice  a  day  in  one  place  and  then  riding  several  miles 
to  preach  a  third  time,  left  no  time  for  the  preparation  of  sermons. 
Never  was  the  promise,  "  For  it  shall  be  given  you  in  that  hour  what  ye 
shall  speak,"  so  remarkably  fulfilled.  The  man  seemed  inspired  each 
day,  and  the  text  from  which  he  should  speak  and  the  points  to  make  in 
each  instance  appeared  to  be  given  him  directly  from  above.  He  went 
into  a  little  village  where  the  houses  were  almost  all  on  one  street,  strag- 
gling along  for  a  mile  or  two,  and  it  was  told  him  that  there  was  not  a 
religious  family  on  the  street.  He  preached  in  a  school-house  on  the 
same  street  from  the  words,  "  The  curse  of  the  Lord  is  in  the  house  of 
the  wicked."  A  profound  impression  was  made  on  the  villagers,  many 
were  converted  at  once,  and  the  feeling  spread  rapidly,  until  not  a  flimily 
remained  impenitent.  In  one  family  sixteen  children  and  grandchildren 
united  with  the  church  at  one  time,  and  seventeen  of  one  family  at  an- 
other. Of  course,  there  was  opposition ;  such  revivals  were  contrary  to 
all  precedent,  and  many  expostulated,  some  earnestly  opposed.  But  the 
preacher  had  no  time  to  quarrel  with  any,  his  only  answer  being,  "  God 
seems  to  bless  my  efforts ;  while  He  does,  I  shall  believe  that  I  am  right, 
and  never  cease  my  labors." 

In  this  way  the  time  passed  until  1828,  when  he  was  invited  to  go 
His  work  in  ^^  Philadelphia  and  labor.  He  accepted  the  invitation, 
Philadelphia.  preaching  in  different  churches  as  they  were  opened  to  him 
for  several  months,  until  urged  to  take  a  central  position,  and  preach 
steadily  in  one  place.  The  largest  church  then  in  the  city  was  a  Ger- 
man church  on  Race  Street,  and  this  was  the  place  fixed  upon  for  the 
continuance  of  his  labors.  It  was  said  to  seat  three  thousand  persons, 
and  nightly  it  was  crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity.  He  preached  here 
for  a  year  and  a  half,  and  there  was  no  abatement  of  the  revival  during 
the  entire  period.  Tlije  converts  were  numerous  in  all  parts  of  the  city, 
and  they  united  with  all  the  different  denominations,  for  there  was  noth- 
ing sectarian  uttered  or  countenanced  at  any  time  by  their  teacher.  In 
the  spring  of  1829,  when  the  Delaware  River  was  high,  the  lumbermen 
came  down  with  their  rafts  from  the  lumber  regions  of  Pennsylvania. 
In  that  section  of  country  were  large  tracts  of  forest,  through  which 
were  scattered  the  log-cabins  of  the  lumbermen  and  their  families.  They 
were  there,  without  schools,  without  churches,  without  teaching  of  any 
sort.  Some  who  went  down  to  the  city  with  their  floating  lumber 
strayed  providentially  into  the  evening  meetings  on  Race  Street,  and  be- 
coming much  interested  went  again,  until  many  were  convei'ted,  and 
went  home  carrying  the  good  news ;  and  the  work  of  conversion  spread 
in  all  that  wild  region,  over  a  tract  of  country  eighty  miles  in  extent, 
until  it  was  reported  that  five  thousand  persons  had  been  converted,  and 
that  without  a  minister,  or  a  single  sermon,  through  the  instrumentality 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  CHARLES  FINNEY.  735 

of  the  few  who  carried  the  blessed  story  as  they  heard  it  in  Philadel- 
phia. 

Afterward  the  preacher  labored  in  New  York  city  for  several  months, 
and  in  the  fall  of  1830  he  went  to  Rochester.  The  city  great  work  in 
contained  then  a  population  of  about  ten  thousand,  and  Boci»ester. 
during  the  revival  which  followed  eight  hundred  persons  wei-e  converted. 
A  revival  of  like  proportion  now  would  number  six  or  seven  thousand 
converts.  In  commencing  his  labors  in  Eochester,  he  began,  as  was  his 
custom  ever  after,  to  preach  to  the  church,  first  trying  to  revive  it,  and 
bring  it  into  a  proper  frame  of  mind  to  assist  in  the  work  among  the 
unconverted.  An  eye-witness  of  those  labors  says,  "  The  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  a  Christian  life  were  so  portrayed  as  absolutely  to  amaze 
and  frighten  the  cold  and  backslidden  professor.  The  sins  of  worldli- 
ness,  lukewarmness,  and  neglect  of  duty  were  set  in  startling  colors  ;  the 
atmosphere  of  the  place  seemed  surcharged  with  the  solemnity  of  eter- 
nity, and  there  was  in  the  speaker  the  dignity  and  majesty  of  one  of  the 
old  prophets.  His  words  were  like  flames  of  fire.  False  hopes  were 
consumed,  backsliders  were  brought  trembling  and  astonished  to  the  feet 
of  the  Saviour.  Reconciliations  were  effected  between  estranged  breth- 
ren. The  sermon  from  the  text,  '  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  '  and  that 
from  ;;he  words,  '  Others  save  with  fear  and  trembling,  pulling  them  out 
of  the  fire,'  made  a  prodigious  impression.  Christians  being  thus  aroused, 
he  was  prepared  to  preach  to  sinners.  He  began  with  the  law,  showing 
what  its  requirements  are,  and  what  its  penalty,  and  the  justice  of  them ; 
how  absolutely  necessary  to  the  order  and  stability  of  the  moral  uni- 
verse, and  how  fearful  a  thing  it  is  then  to  sin  against  the  law-giver  and 
all  the  interests  of  the  universe."  When  persons  were  awakened  by 
these  presentations,  and  tremblingly  asked,  "  What  shall  we  do  to  be 
saved  ?  "  then  with  great  pity  and  tenderness  they  were  pointed  to  the 
cross,  to  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  bore  our  punishment  for  us;  and  his  ex- 
ceeding love  was  opened  to  their  view,  in  all  its  fullness  and  power,  and 
with  tears  and  entreaties  they  were  urged  to  accept  it  until  a  heart  of 
stone  could  resist  no  longer. 

All  the  towns  in  the  vicinity  were  aroused.  The  preacher  went  from 
one  to  another  as  he  could  find  time,  and  taught  and  helped  them.  Over 
twelve  thousand  members  were  added  that  year  to  the  churches  of  the 
Rochester  presbytery  alone,  besides  the  great  ingathering  into  churches 
of  other  denominations.  But  it  was  not  by  members  alone  that  the  good 
results  were  shown  ;  the  only  theatre  in  the  city  was  converted  into  a 
livery  stable,  and  a  circus  into  a  factory ;  grog-shops  were  closed,  the  Sab- 
bath honored,  and  men  seemed  to  live  to  do  good.  Among  the  converts 
were  lawyers,  judges,  physicians,  mei'chants,  bankers,  and  master  mechan- 
ics ;  and  as  all  the  leaders  of  society  had  changed  their  modes  of  life  and 
feeling,  social  life,  business,  and  civil  affairs,  all  had  a  different  tone. 


736  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Even  the  courts  and  prisons  felt  the  change  ;  the  jail  was  nearly  empty 
for  years  afterwards.  The  preacher  visited  Rochester  again  in  1842,  a 
third  time  in  1856,  and  each  time  one  thousand  souls  were  given  him  as 
his  hire.  One  of  the  converts  of  the  first  revival  says  feelingly,  "  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  thousands  are  indebted  to  that  wonderful  man 
for  their  success  in  life,  for  position,  competence,  influence,  home,  kin- 
dred, friends,  and  daily  joys  !  What  miserable  shipwreck  many  of  them 
might  have  made,  both  for  this  world  and  the  next,  had  he  not  met  them, 
and  moved  them  by  his  mighty  influence,  it  is  not  difficult  to  conject- 
ure." 

In  1832  he  went  for  a  second  time  to  New  York,  where  the  Tappan 
brothers  and  others  purchased  the  Chatham  Street  Theatre 
city.  "  The  and  fitted  it  up  for  a  church.  Here  he  preached  to  throng- 
ing thousands  for  two  or  three  years,  until  the  site  of  the 
Broadway  Theatre,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire,  was  for  sale,  when  his 
friends  bought  it,  and  erected,  after  plans  suggested  by  himself,  the 
Broadway  Tabernacle.  During  the  years  at  Chatham  Street  Chapel,  so 
many  were  the  converts,  that  they  were  urged  to  go  into  different  parts 
of  the  city  and  establish  new  churches.  The  result  was  the  springing 
up  of  seven  young  churches,  which  all  flourished  and  grew,  without  how- 
ever diminishing  in  the  least  the  crowd  that  worshiped  in  the  chapel. 
About  this  time  need  was  felt  of  a  religious  newspaper,  which  should 
represent  the  advanced  ideasin  religious  teaching,  and  aid  Charles  Fin- 
ney in  his  work.  Accordingly  the  New  York  "  Evangelist "  was  estab- 
lished. Finney's  morning  sermons  were  reported  for  this  paper ;  and 
when  he  could  find  time,  he  contributed  other  papers,  on  theology,  practi- 
cal piety,  etc.  These  papers  were  afterward  printed  in  a  volume,  under 
the  title,  "  Finney's  Lectures  on  Revivals,"  and  twelve  thousand  copies 
were  sold  at  once.  They  were  afterward  reprinted  in  England  and 
France,  and  translated  into  Welsh  and  German,  one  London  publisher 
issuing  eighty  thousand  copies.  The  Congregational  ministers  of  the 
principality  of  Wales  appointed  a  committee  to  inform  the  preacher  of 
the  great  revival  that  had  resulted  from  the  translation  of  this  book  into 
Welsh. 

Those  who  built  the  "  Tabernacle,"  and  who  were  the  leading  members 
of  the  church,  decided  that  it  should  be  governed  as  a  Congregational 
church.  Accordingly,  Finney  took  his  dismission  from  the  presbytery, 
and  became  pastor  of  that  church  as  a  Congregational ist.  He  was  ever 
'  after  identified  with  this  denomination,  although,  as  has  before  been 
stated,  very  liberal  in  his  views,  and  shunning  anything  like  sectarianism 
in  teaching  and  in  feeling.  In  1835,  the  college  at  Oberlin,  Ohio,  was 
founded,  and  Charles  Finney  was  urged  to  take  the  chair  of  theology ; 
th.e  plan  being  to  make  the  school  ultimately  a  university,  but  prox- 
imately to  fit  young  men  for  the  ministry.     He  hesitated  for  some  time ; 


Cent.  XVII. -XIX.]  CHARLES  FINNEY.  737 

his  work  seemed  to  him  peculiarly  that  of  an  evangelist ;  but  at  last  he 
consented  to  spend  a  part  of  each  year  teaching  in  this  Western  semi- 
nary, with  the  privilege  of  carrying  on  his  labors  in  New  York  iu  the 
winter.  This  arrangement  was  carried  out  for  two  or  three  years,  but 
was  found  to  be  too  great  a  tax  upon  his  strength,  and  the  number  of 
students  greatly  increasing  in  OberHu,  the  duty  to  the  college  seemed 
paramount,  and  he  resigned  his  pastorate  in  New  York.  He  became 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Oberlin,  which  for  more  than  twenty  years  was 
the  only  church  in  the  town,  and  finally  numbered  nearly  two  thousand 
communicants,  so  that  it  became  necessary  to  divide  it.  For  a  number 
of  years  he  thus  increased  in  labors,  as  pastor  of  so  large  a  church,  as 
professor  of  theology,  and  during  the  vacation  in  college  when  his  strength 
would  at  all  allow,  as  preacher,  toiling  in  other  towns  and  cities,  some- 
times in  the  East,  then  again  in  the  West,  at  Cincinnati  and  other 
places. 

Twice  during  this  time  he  went  to  England,  where  he  preached  in: 
Houghton,  Birmingham,  Worcester,  and  in  Whitefield's  Tab-  yhs  work  in 
ernacle,  Finsbury,  London.  This  last  place  of  worship  England, 
could  seat  three  thousand  persons.  It  was  constantly  filled,  although'^ 
week-day  religious  services  were  then  almost  unknown  in  London. 
Upon  the  first  call  for  those  who  would  like  personal  conversation  upon 
the  subject  of  the  soul's  salvation,  to  repair  to  a  certain  hall  in  the 
neighborhood  at  the  close  of  the  preaching,  some  fifteen  or  sixteen 
hundred  persons  thronged  in,  and  filled  the  room  to  its  utmost  capacity. 
There  was  weeping  and  audible  sobbing  all  over  the  house,  as  the- 
preacher  in  the  simplest  and  clearest  way  pointed  out  to  them  the  duty 
of  immediate  and  entire  submission  to  God.  This  was  only  one  of  many 
evenings  that  followed  in  that  large  church  in  the  midst  of  London, 
where  he  labored  for  nine  mouths.  He  was  often  accosted  in  the  streets,. 
when  walking  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  by  perfect  strangers,  who 
would  say,  "  Beg  pardon,  Mr.  Finney,  but  I  can't  pass  you  without  stop- 
ping to  thank  you  for  the  great  good  your  sermons  have  done  me."  A 
rector  of  an  EpiscojDal  church  attended  the  meetings  several  times,  and 
then  went  to  preaching  with  all  his  might  to  promote  a  revival  in  his. 
own  parish.  He  established  meetings  at  twenty  different  places  in  the 
parish,  and  in  a  short  time  fifteen  hundred  persons  were  converted  as  a 
result  of  his  efforts.  When  Finney  left  London,  four  or  five  Episcopal 
churches  were  holding  revival  services,  and  the  number  of  converts  was 
increasing.  It  was  ten  years  before  Finney  went  again  to  England. 
He  found  to  his  astonishment  that  the  work  had  never  ceased,  but  had 
been  spreading  in  all  directions.  In  1858,  after  preaching  a  few  weeks 
in  Houghton,  he  went  to  Borough  Road  Chapel,  London.  Here  he  met 
with  the  same  large  success,  and  what  is  better,  left  the  church  so  awak- 
ened and  in  earnest,  that,  for  years  after,  they  expected,  and  really  did 
47 


738  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

have,  conversions  every  week.  Before  returning  home  he  visited  Edin- 
burgh, and  also  Aberdeen,  with  blessed  results.  After  this  he  returned 
to  England  for  a  few  months,  preaching  in  Bolton  and  in  Manchester. 
In  the  former  place  sixty  mill-hands  were  converted  in  one  evening,  at 
a  meeting  held  for  their  especial  benefit  in  the  mills.  After  two  years 
of  this  constant  and  wearing  labor,  he  returned  to  Oberlin,  and  resumed 
his  teaching  and  preaching  there. 

On  returning  from  the  first  visit  to  England,  Finney  had  become  pres- 
ident of  the  colleije,  without,  however,  resigning  any  of  his 

President  of  xt  •  -i  ^n      i  •         f  -i 

Oberlin ;  his        other  duties.     He  contmued  to  nil  this  place  until  a  very 
eo  ogy.  ^^^  years  before  his  death,  when  advancing  years,  and  their 

usual  infirmities,  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  be  relieved  from  some  of 
his  cares.  He  taught  his  classes  until  the  end  of  the  college  year  pre- 
ceding his  death,  and  preached  but  a  very  short  time  before  the  close  of 
his  life,  with  much  power  and  earnestness.  In  the  language  of  one  of 
his  pupils  and  friends,  "  He  was  for  more  than  a  generation  the  best 
known  representative  of  Oberlin  abroad,  and  its  constant  inspiration  at 
home."  He  elaborated  a  system  of  theology  which,  while  it  was  essen- 
tially the  same  as  that  taught  by  the  advanced  school  of  New  England 
theologians,  was  yet  so  modified,  and  as  he  regarded  it  improved,  as  to 
deserve  its  cognomen,  "  Oberlin  theology,"  and  he  upheld  its  doctrines 
with  potent  logic  and  earnest  zeal.  The  principal  characteristics  of  this 
system,  as  distinguished  from  those  of  other  schools,  cannot  be  better 
stated  than  in  the  language  of  an  Andover  (Massachusetts)  theologian, 
in  a  "  Critical  Eeview  of  President  Finney's  Theological  System."  He 
says  the  tenets  are  :  "  (1.)  The  human  will  is  self-determining  in  its  action. 
(2.)  All  obligation  is  limited  by  ability.  (3.)  All  virtuous  choice  termi- 
nates upon  the  good  of  beings,  and  in  the  ultimate  analysis  on  the  good 
of  being  in  general.  (4.)  The  will  is  never  divided  in  its  action,  but  is 
at  each  instant  either  wholly  virtuous  or  wholly  sinful."  The  fitness  of 
President  Finney  for  this  new  field  of  work  will  be  apparent  if  we  recall 
the  description  of  his  mental  traits  already  given.  They  were  quickness 
of  perception,  clearness  of  discrimination,  and  logical  acuteness.  In  ad- 
dition to  these  he  had  an  earnest  determination  to  know  nothing  but  the 
truth.  On  all  these  points  there  has  been  much  discussion  and  difference 
of  opinion,  but  the  subject  which  excited  most  opposition,  and  on  account 
■of  which  many  of  his  early  friends  and  co-laborers  withdrew  their  sym- 
pathy from  him  for  a  number  of  years,  was  the  doctrine  of  sanctification. 
As  regards  exactly  what  he  taught,  there  has  been  widespread  and  per- 
sistent misunderstanding.  The  doctrine  grew  naturally  out  of  the  position 
that  the  will  is  altogether  sinful  or  altogether  virtuous  in  every  act.  He 
claimed  that  when  we  obey  God  wholly,  we  are  then  as  perfect  as  we 
can  be,  at  that  moment,  in  that  act.  But  he  never  taught  that  a  man 
was  made  holy  by  one  act,  so  as  always  to  remain  so.     He  held  simply 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  CHARLES  FINNEY.  739 

that  it  is  our  duty  to  obey  perfectly  now,  and  to  aim  also  to  obey  God 
the  next  moment,  to  watch  and  pray,  to  depend  upon  the  Holy  Spirit, 
to  continue  in  obedience,  and  that  this  state  of  constant  obedience  is 
sanctification,  and  that  by  prayer  and  watchfulness,  and  the  help  of  the 
Spirit,  man  may  hope  to  attain  to  "  the  stature  of  a  perfect  man  in  Christ 
Jesus." 

In  teaching  he  encouraged  discussion  and  inquiry  in  the  freest  manner, 
and  if  in  the  j^rogress  of  the  discussion  he  obtained  any  new  light  on  a 
vexed  question,  he  cheei'fully  admitted  it,  and  made  the  change  in  his 
subsequent  statements.  At  one  time  when  his  own  words  were  quoted 
against  the  position  he  was  maintaining,  he  smilingly  replied,  "  "Well,  I 
don't  agree  with  Finney  on  that  point."  He  was  always  cordial  and 
cheerful  in  the  class-room,  impressing  upon  all,  however,  the  fact  that  his 
most  earnest  wish  was  for  their  spiritual  insight  into  truth,  and  their  per- 
sonal growth  in  the  divine  life,  that  so  they  might  teach  others  that  which 
they  themselves  knew  and  had  experienced.  Later  he  compiled  his  the- 
ological lectures  in  a  volume  called  "  Finney's  Systematic  Theology." 
It  was  republished  in  England,  and  in  the  preface.  Dr.  Redford,  a  prom- 
inent theologian  of  Worcester,  England,  says,  "As  a  contribution  to 
theological  science  in  an  age  when  vague  speculation  and  philosophical 
theories  are  bewildering  many  among  all  denominations  of  Christians, 
this  work  will  be  considered  by  all  competent  judges  to  be  both  valuable 
and  seasonable." 

The  pastorate  of  so  large  a  church,  whose  members  were  scattered 
over  several  miles  of  territory,  would,  in  itself,  seem  occupa-  ^^  ^  pastor  •  his 
tion  enough  for  one  person.  The  pastor  was  necessarily  tenderness. 
obliged  to  i^lace  some  limit  to  his  efforts.  He  never  made  social  visits, 
he  never  went  out  to  dine  or  take  tea  with  a  neighbor.  All  his  time 
and  his  utmost  strength  were  fully  taxed  by  his  duties.  Yet  no  call  for 
sympathy  or  help  was  ever  neglected.  The  sick  could  testify  to  his  daily 
visitation,  to  the  support  afforded  by  his  brief  prayer  at  their  bedside, 
and  his  kindly  mterest  in  their  recovery.  Up  to  the  last  day  of  his  life, 
his  horse  and  carriage  were  brought  to  the  door  whenever  the  weather 
was  fine,  that  he  might  go  to  drive  some  hopeless  invalid,  or  frail  conva- 
lescent, out  for  the  air.  He  was  in  every  sense  of  the  word  the  father  of 
his  people.  He  baptized  their  children,  he  married  the  young  men  and 
maidens,  comforted  the  dying  with  strong  words  of  faith  and  cheer,  and 
buried  the  dead,  not  without  tears  of  sympathy  with  the  bereaved,  but  also 
with  such  assurance  of  hope  and  immortal  life  that  they  could  not  but 
be  consoled.  Two  or  three  years  before  his  death,  at  nearly  eighty  years 
of  age,  he  resigned  his  pastorate,  which  he  had  wished  to  do  for  some 
time,  but  had  been  prevented  by  the  universal  protest  of  the  church  and 
of  all  his  friends. 

But  he  still  preached  occasionally,  as  he  had  strength,  and  to  no  one 


740  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

would  be  ever  delegate  his  mission  to  the  poor,  the  sick,  or  those  suffering 
under  any  affliction.  The  writer  vividly  recalls  the  fact  of  his  coming  in 
one  afternoon  about  two  weeks  before  his  death,  very  tired,  and  much 
heated,  and  when  asked  where  he  had  been,  he  replied,  "  To  visit  that  sick 

girl  away  over  on Street."     He  walked  about  two  miles  on  a  warm 

Au<yust  afternoon,  because  a  sick  girl  wished  to  see  him.  It  might  readily 
be  imagined  that  a  man  of  such  ready  sympathies  and  strong  enthusiasm 
would  often  be  imposed  upon,  and  much  of  his  time  wasted  by  unworthy 
calls ;  but  his  strong  common  sense  always  prevented  that.  One  night,  a 
little  after  midnight,  the  household  were  startled  by  the  loud  ringing  of 
the  door-bell.  Mr.  Finney  himself  arose  and  opened  the  door.  A  tall 
black  man  stood  there,  who  said,  "  Mr.  Finney,  dey  hab  got  de  debil  ober 
hyar  in  de  school-house,  and  de  Lord  wants  you  to  come  ober  and  drive 
him  away ;  de  Lord  wants  you  to  come."  Mr.  Finney  replied  quickly, 
"  Not  JHe,  at  this  time  of  night,"  and  shut  the  door. 

One  lonely  Sabbath  afternoon,  in  the  latter  part  of  August,  1875,  he 
spent  with  some  of  his  children  and  grandchildren  gathered  about  him, 
in  sinmuo;  sacred  music  and  in  loving  converse.  His  voice  seemed  al- 
most  as  strong  and  musical  as  ever ;  it  was  sweet  and  clear,  and  not  at 
all  tremulous.  The  little  party  broke  up  about  five  o'clock,  with  fare- 
well kisses,  and  calling  back  from  the  gate,  "We'll  come  over  again  in 
the  morning,  father."  He  retired  about  eight  o'clock.  Between  ten  and 
eleven  he  awoke  in  great  pain,  and  after  a  few  hours  of  suffering  he  en- 
tered Paradise,  just  as  day  dawned  on  the  world  which  he  had  done  so 
much  to  bless.  To  those  standing  about  his  bedside,  who  had  been  wit- 
nesses of  his  long,  earnest,  and  laborious  life,  it  seemed  that  through  the 
pale  dawn  they  heard  a  voice  from  heaven  saying,  "  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  th}'  Lord."  —  H.  F.  C. 


LIFE  XXV.    ISABELLA  GRAHAM. 

A.  D.  1742-A.  D.  1814.      ASSOCIATE    REFORMED,  —  AMERICA. 

The  American  metropolis,  unlike  the  great  Old  World  centres  in  so 
many  things,  differs  from  them  in  this  also,  that  in  affairs  of  church  she 
never  has  dominated  the  surrounding  population.  Leaders  of  religion 
have  none  the  less  abounded  here,  noble  men  and  devoted  women.  Of 
the  latter  none  better  deserves  to  be  remembered  than  Isabella  Graham. 
The  grandchild  of  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Secession  church  of  Scot- 
land, she  justly  belongs  to  the  United  Presbyterian  household.  Among 
all  American  leaders  sprung  of  Seceder  lineage,  she  may  fairly  be  called 
the  foremost  woman,  even  as  her  pastor  and  almost  son,  John  Mitchell 
Mason,  whose  name  will  often  appear  in  this  story  of  her  life,  may  be 
reckoned  the  foremost  man.^ 

1  For  other  leaders  of  Seceder  lineage  see  Lives  XVII.  and  XVIII. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ISABELLA    GRAHAM.  ("^l 

To  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  Christian  body,  in  whose  membership 
in  New  York  city  she  will  be  found  for  more  than  a  score  covenanters, 
of  years,  it  will  be  necessary  to  return  to  events  occurring  i^socfate  *Re- 
in  Scotland  some  years  before  her  birth.  In  1688  the  Re-  formed, 
formed,  or  Presbyterian,  communion  became  again  the  established  church 
in  Scotland.  The  rights  granted  to  it  did  not,  however,  include  as  much 
as  was  desired  by  many  who  had  maintained  their  covenant  with  God 
and  their  bi-ethren  even  unto  blood.  Yet  the  establishment  of  the  church 
on  the  terms  offered  by  the  government  was  accepted  by  the  vast  major- 
ity. The  few  who  rejected  it  set  up  an  independent  organization,  calling 
themselves  the  Reformed  Church,  though  better  known  as  the  "  Cove- 
nanters" (1706).  A  few  years  later  (1733),  others,  ministers  and  mem- 
bers of  the  state  church,  found  its  rule  too  oppressive  to  be  borne.  For, 
instead  of  giving  the  Christian  people  of  a  parish  the  election  of  their 
pastor,  the  state  gave  it  to  a  "  patron "  who  possessed  property  in  the 
parish,  and,  perhaps,  titled  position.  Besides,  opposition  was  made  by 
the  state  to  freedom  of  doctrine.  For  these  reasons,  Ebenezer  Erskine, 
with  his  brother  and  other  ministers,  and  with  many  people,  seceded  from 
the  state  church,  and  set  up  the  Associate  presbytery.  Like  the  Re- 
formed body,  they,  and  other  detachments  who  joined  them  afterwards, 
bad  a  second  name,  and  were  popularly  called  "  the  Seceders."  They, 
too,  as  Dean  Stanley  says,  stood  essentially  upon  the  Covenant.  Both 
Covenanters  and  Seceders  were,  for  evident  reasons,  well  prepared  to  be- 
come emigrants  from  home  and  fatherland  at  a  fitting  opportunity.  In- 
deed, not  a  few  of  their  fathers  had  already,  in  the  time  of  the  last  Stu- 
arts, been  sent  for  religion's  sake  across  the  ocean,  doomed  to  hard  labor 
in  the  colonies.  When  the  war  of  independence  began,  there  were  in 
America  a  Reformed  Presbytery,  an  Associate  Presbytery  of  New  York, 
and  an  Associate  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  By  the  close  of  the  war 
these  had  grown  very  near  to  one  another.  The  father  of  John  Mitchell 
Mason,  Dr.  John  Mason,  of  New  York  city,  who  had  left  his  pulpit  to 
serve  in  the  army  of  Washington  as  chaplain,  became  an  active  agent  in 
their  union.  All  the  Reformed  ministers  and  all  the  Associate  save  two 
came  together,  constituting  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church.^ 
The  two  who  held  out,  receiving  help  from  Scotland,  continued  as  an  As- 
sociate church  until  1858,  when  a  further  union  took  place,  forming  the 
present  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  North  America.  This  commun- 
ion, in  its  early  and  grand  characteristics,  —  deep  religious  ct^j^rj^pt^risties 
enthusiasm  ;  heart  hatred  of  bondage,  whether  ecclesiastical  °^^^^f^"j|Jf^^^^ 
or  personal ;  extended  intellectual  culture  for  both  men  and 
women,  and  especially  for  ministers  j  strict  Sabbath  observance ;  strong 

1  This  was  in  1782.  Reformed  ministers  coming  from  Scotland  continued  the  Reformed 
oricanizrttion,  which  endures  to  this  day,  numbering,  however,  less  than  two  hundred  mm- 
ihters  in  its  two  divisions. 


742  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

church  discipline;  and  scriptural  as  opposed  to  frivolous  psalmody,  —  will 
be  found  nobly  exemplified  in  the  life  of  Isabella  Marshall  Graham. 

Isabella  Marshall  was  born  in  Lanark,  in  Scotland,  July  29,  1742. 
From  her  mother,  Janet  Hamilton,^  of  whom  she  says,  "Never  was  there 
such  a  mother,  —  her  delight  was  with  God,  her  closet  was  a  Bethel,  her 
Bible  was  her  heart's  treasure,"  Isabella  early  received  religious  im- 
pressions. In  the  woods  of  Elderslie,  an  estate  (near  Paisley)  which 
her  father  had  rented,  she  knew  a  bush  under  which,  as  she  believed, 
she  gave  herself  to  God  before  she  was  ten  years  old.  Upon  reaching 
her  eleventh  year,  having  received  a  legacy  of  a  hundred  pounds,  she 
asked  that  it  might  be  applied  to  her  education.  She  was  sent  (1752)  to 
a  boarding-school,  in  which  she  spent  seven  winters,  receiving  a  training 
far  above  common  for  that  day.  At  the  end  of  her  course  of  study  she 
entered  the  communion  of  the  Paisley  church,  of  which  John  Wither- 
spoon  (see  Life  VI.)  was  then  pastor.  At  twenty-three  Isabella  married 
a  physician  of  Paisley,  John  Graham,  who  was  already,  by  a  former 
marriage,  father  of  two  sons,  both  of  whom  became,  at  a  later  day,  dis- 
tinguished officers  of  the  British  army.  "  I  was  the  wife,"  she  wrote 
thirty-five  years  afterwards,  "  of  a  man  of  sense,  sentiment,  and  sensibil- 
ity, who  was  my  very  first  love  and  lover,  and  that  love  ripened  and  im- 
proved with  years." 

When,  two  years  after  marriage,  her  husband  was  made  a  surgeon  of 
the  British  army  and  ordered  to  Canada,  she  attended  him  on  his  jour- 
ney. An  infant  son  was  left  with  her  parents,  who  planned  to  follow 
and  to  find  a  home  in  America.  The  five  years  following,  ever  looked 
upon  by  Mrs.  Graham  as  outwardly  the  most  joyous  days  of  her  life, 
were  spent  in  garrison  in  Quebec,  Montreal,  and  Fort  Niagara,  four  of 
them  at  the  last  place,  near  the  mighty  cataract.  The  husband  receiving 
She  sees  New  Orders  to  Antigua,  in  the  West  Indies,  the  wife  bravely  fol- 
York  city  for       lowed  him  throush  the  forests,  taking  three  infimt  daugh- 

the  first  time.  *  '  o  o 

ters  (the  child  left  in  Scotland  having  died  there)  and  two 
Indian  captives,  their  servants,  by  the  way  of  the  Mohawk  and  the 
Hudson  to  New  York  city.  She  then,  for  the  first  time,  beheld  the 
scene  of  her  future  labors. 

Severer  discipline  than  she  had  yet  known  was  still  to  educate  her  for 
her  career  in  this  New  World  metropolis.  Within  a  year  after  reaching 
Antigua  she  was  stricken  by  two  profound  sorrows,  the  death  of  her 
mother  and  that  of  her  idolized  husband.  "  At  one  blow,"  she  writes, 
*'  He  took  from  me  all  that  made  life  dear,  the  very  kernel  of  all  my 
earthly  joys,  my  idol,  my  beloved  husband."  A  widow  on  a  strange 
shore,  with  but  slight  resources,  not  amounting  in  all  to  a  thousand  dol- 
lars, Mrs.  Graham  resisted  the  urging  of  her  friends  that  she  sell  her 

1  Her  mother's  father,  a  "ruling  elder,"  the  grandparent  named  above  (page  740),  was 
with  the  Erskiues  in  forming  the  Associate  Church  of  Scotland. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ISABELLA    GRAHAM.  743 

servants.  A  few  months  before  she  had  uttered  her  mind  on  slavery  in 
a  letter  to  her  husband,  then  away  upon  military  service :  "  I  am  told 
that  you  have  taken  a  number  of  prisoners.  I  know  not  if  you  have 
any  right  to  entail  slavery  on  these  poor  creatures.  If  any  fall  to  your 
share,  do  set  them  at  liberty."  Now  she  writes  of  her  two  slaves  to  a 
friend  in  Antigua,  "  If  it  should  please  God  to  take  me  away  in  my 
approaching  confinement,  let  Diana  be  sent  with  my  children.  As  for 
Susan,  I  am  at  a  loss  what  to  do  with  her ;  my  heart  tells  me  I  have  no 
right  to  entail  slavery  upon  her  and  her  offspring.  I  know  I  shall  be 
blamed,  but  I  am  about  to  be  called  to  account  by  a  higher  power  than 
any  in  this  world  for  my  conduct,  and  I  dare  not  allow  her  to  be  sold. 
I  therefore  leave  it  to  herself,  either  to  remain  here,  or,  if  it  be  her  de- 
sire, to  accompany  the  children.  She  wrote  at  the  same  hour  to  her 
father  in  Scotland,  commending  to  him  her  little  ones.  She  included  in 
her  message  her  step-sons,  saying :  "  Though  I  did  not  suffer  a  mother's 
pangs  for  them,  Heaven  knows  how  equally  I  love  them  with  those  that 
cost  me  dearer."  She  charged  him  :  "  Remember  to  give  my  love  to  all 
my  dear  children."     To  her  brother,  also,  she  sent  tender  words. 

The  widow,  in  her  trial,  found  friends  in  Christians,  even  in  some 
whose  church  names  were  very  strange  to  her.  "  Do  you  -^^^^^  friends  in 
remember,"  she  writes  to  a.  friend,  long  afterwards,  "  how  ^^^  ^^"'^^'^  Indies. 
much  I  used  to  say  about  our  dear  Methodist  society  in  Antigua,  and  the 
three  holy,  harmless,  zealous  Moravian  brethren  ;  and  how  the  preachers 
gave  each  other  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  ?  .  .  .  .  The  Lord  brought 
me  into  their  fold  a  straggling  lamb.     These  poor  people  nourished  me 

with  tenderness Never,  never  shall  I  forget  the  labors  of  love  of 

that  little  society.  How  many  such  stragglers  as  I  may  be  wandering  in 
both  East  and  West  Indies,  and  may  be  restored  by  these  precious  mis- 
sionaries !  I  owe  them  of  my  labors  more  than  others.  I  send  you  a  bill 
of  fifty  pounds." 

Instead  of  death  Mrs.  Graham  found  in  Antigua  a  higher  and  better 
life.  She  became,  too,  the  mother  of  a  son,  and  with  her  babe  and  her 
girls  took  ship  to  Scotland.  Hastening  to  her  father,  she  found  him  not 
in  the  "  large  ancient  mansion  in  which  she  left  him,  but  in  a  thatched 
cottage  consisting  of  three  apartments."  By  being  surety  for  friends  he 
had  lost  all  his  property.  His  health,  too,  had  gone.  His  daughter  added 
him  to  her  family  of  four,  and  supported  all  of  them,  first  at  her  father's 
house  at  Cartside,  making  butter  and  selling  it,  feeding  her  vicissitudes  in 
children  on  porridge,  and  clothing  them  in  homespun.  Aft-  Scotland. 
erwards  for  two  years  she  taught  a  small  school  in  Paisley,  near  by.  Her 
slender  earnings,  with  a  widow's  pension  of  sixteen  pounds,  were  all  her 
income.  The  little  capital  brought  with  her  she  had  invested,  by  the 
advice  of  a  friend,  in  muslins,  to  be  carried  in  his  vessel  and  sold  in  the 
West  Indies ;  but  the  ship  was  taken  by  the  French.     Of  her  situation 


744  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

at  Paisley  she  says,  a  few  years  after,  ""  To  this  same  towu  I  returned 
a  widow,  helpless  and  poor,  neglected  and  forgotten.  I  taught  my  little 
school,  and  earned  my  porridge,  potatoes,  and  salt.  I  found  myself  totally 
neglected  by  some  who  once  thought  themselves  honored  by  my  acquaint- 
ance." 

In  the  midst  of  her  poverty  it  was  suggested  to  her  by  the  wife  of  an 
army  officer  to  open  a  school  in  Edinburgh.  In  want  of  means,  she  was 
surprised  by  a  remittance  from  the  gentleman  who  had  taken  charge  of 
her  muslins,  he  having,  without  her  knowledge,  insured  them,  and  recov- 
ered the  insurance.  She  was  thus  enabled  to  remove  to  Edinburgh  (1779)^ 
and  to  open  a  school.  This  she  conducted  with  success  for  eight  years. 
Among  her  near  friends  were  the  mother  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  then 
a  mere  boy,  and  the  Viscountess  Glenorchy.  The  death  of  the  latter, 
her  active  patron  and  that  of  her  father,  helped  sunder  Mrs.  Graham's 
ties  to  her  native  country.  Her  heart  went  out,  especially  since  the  war 
of  independence  was  over,  to  America.  She  welcomed  the  suggestion  of 
her  old  pastor,  Dr.  John  Witherspoon,  favoring  her  removal  to  the  United 
States.  "  She  had  entertained,"  her  daughter  writes,  "  a  strong  partiality 
for  America  ever  since  her  former  residence  there,  and  had  indulged  a 
sweet  expectation  of  returning.  It  was  her  opioion  and  that  of  many 
pious  people  that  America  was  the  country  where  the  church  of  Christ 
would  preeminently  flourish.  She  was  therefore  desirous  to  leave  her 
offspring  there."  One  serious  mistake  she  seems  to  have  made :  she  left 
her  son,  now  fifteen,  behind  her,  without  his  mother's  care  or  sisters'  re- 
straint. The  boy  grew  up  with  impetuous  and  roving  spirit,  after  two 
years  turned  sailor,  and  five  years  later  was  last  heard  of  upon  a  vessel 
which  was  taken  by  a  French  cruiser.  Another  child  which  was  left  by 
Mrs.  Graliam  in  Scotland  prospered.  This  was  the  Penny  Society, 
formed  at  her  instance,  composed  of  poor  people,  who  laid  aside  each  a 
penny  a  week  as  a  fund  to  help  them  in  sickness.  It  afterwards  became 
endowed  as  "  The  Society  for  the  Relief  of  the  Destitute  Sick." 

Mrs.  Graham's  apprentice  work  in  schools  and  charities  in  Great 
Britain  well  fitted  her  to  be  a  master  workman  in  the  New 
welcome  in  New  World,  and  in  its  greatest  city.  She  reached  New  York 
York  city.  September  8,  1789,  and  was  welcomed  by  John  Mason,  by 

whom  the  church  of  her  mother  was  nobly  represented  in  America.  In 
that  church  she  at  once  found  a  home,  and  ties  of  love  which  she  never 
sundered. 

Although  the  chief  reasons  for  the  setting  up  of  the  separate  bodies  of 
the  Associate  and  the  Reformed  had  been  left  behind  when  Great  Bi'itain 
was  left,  yet  there  remained  many  arguments  for  clinging  to  the  "  testimo- 
nies "  of  two  centuries.  So  John  Mason  and  his  friends  maintained  their 
denomination,  and  Isabella  Graham  labored  in  it,  in  the  city  of  New  York 
over  twenty  years.     The  Associate,  the  Reformed,  and  afterwards  the 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  ISABELLA    GRAHAM.  745 

United  Presbyterian  churches  became  a  reservoir  into  which  precious 
streams  from  the  "  old  country  "  flowed,  and  from  which  they  have  poured 
forth  to  bless  all  the  communions  and  all  the  states  of  this  land.  Mrs. 
Graham  worked  by  the  side  of  John  Mason  three  years,  and  then  mourned 
his  death  as  that  of  a  brother.  She  had  seen  her  two  daughters  (one 
having  entered  the  church  in  Scotland)  received  into  his  communion. 
"  Dr.  Mason,"  she  says,  "  was  a  city  set  upon  a  hill.  He  was  delations  to  her 
with  the  army  during  the  war  after  the  evacuation  of  New  P'ls'ors. 
York,  and  had  great  influence  over  the  soldiers  ;  preached  the  gospel  of 
peace  uniformly,  but  never  meddled  with  politics,  though  he  was  fully 

capable I  had  the  honor  to  close  his  dear  eyes,  and  to  shut  those 

dear  lips  from  whence  so  many  precious  truths  have  proceeded,  and  to 
mix  with  the  ministering  spirits  who  attended  to  hail  the  released." 

If  Mrs.  Graham  lost  a  brother  in  John  Mason,  she  found  an  almost 
son  in  John  Mitchell  Mason,  the  successor  of  his  father.  He  was  now, 
at  twenty-four,  just  completing  his  studies  in  Edinburgh.  That  they 
were  after  Mrs.  Graham's  heart,  we  cannot  doubt,  for  his  father  had 
charged  him,  "  Read  Boston,  Erskine,  Harvey,  the  Marrow  of  Modern 
Divinity,  and  the  Synod's  Catechism  "  (all  of  them  strong  diet,  approved 
of  United  Presbyterians).  The  young  student,  called  home  by  his  fa- 
ther's death,  was  accepted  by  Mrs.  Graham  and  the  rest  as  their  pastor 
(1793).  "  Our  young  Timothy,  John  Mitchell,"  she  writes,  "  is  a  per- 
fect champion  for  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  The  Lord  has  well  girded  him 
and  largely  endowed  him.  He  walks  closely  with  God  and  preaches 
like  a  Christian  of  long  experience.  He  was  ordained  about  two  months 
ago  in  his  father's  church,  and  a  few  weeks  after  married  a  lady  of  emi- 
nent piety,  and  preached  all  day,  both  the  Sabbath  before  and  after. 
There  is  probably  no  church  in  New  York  where  discipline  is  so  strict, 
nor  one  which  has  so  many  communicants.  He  is  reckoned  a  lad  of 
great  talents,  and  many,  even  of  the  idle  and  careless,  go  to  hear  him." 
Side  by  side  with  Mason,  Mrs.  Graham  walked  all  her  active  years,  and 
when  at  last  she  fell  asleep,  her  fame  was  first  sounded  by  the  notes  of 
his  golden  eloquence. 

Mrs.  Graham's  New  York  school  for  young  ladies  was  from  the  first 
a  success.  After  three  years  she  writes  that  "  business "  is  good,  "  a 
house  full  of  boarders  and  about  sixty  scholars."  A  description  of  her 
school  says,  "  Her  little  republic  was  completely  governed  by  a  system 
of  equitable  laws.  On  every  alleged  offense,  a  court  martial,  as  they 
termed  it,  was  held,  and  the  accused  tried  by  her  peers.  There  were  no 
arbitrary  punishments,  no  sallies  of  capricious  passion.  The  laws  were 
promulgated,  and  obedience  was  indispensable.  The  sentences  of  the 
courts  martial  were  always  approved  and  had  a  salutary  Her  great  work 
efl'ect."  Mrs.  Graham's  work  as  a  teacher  may  be  dis-  »« a  teacher, 
missed  with  the  statement  that  George  \yashington  admired  and  patron- 


746  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

ized  her  school,  and  John  Mitchell  Mason  said  of  it  at  her  death, 
"Twenty-five  years  ago  she  opened  in  this  city  a  school,  the  benefits  of 
which  have  been  strongly  felt  and  will  be  long  felt  hereafter  in  different 
and  distant  parts  of  our  country.  She  succeeded  in  that  most  difficult 
part  of  a  teacher's  work,  the  inducing  youth  to  take  an  interest  in  their 
own  improvement,  and  to  educate  themselves  by  exerting  their  own  fac- 
ulties." After  retiring  from  her  school  Mrs.  Graham's  home  was  with 
her  two  daughters  (the  eldest  having  died).  She  felt  always  an  exceed- 
ing tenderness  to  her  children,  as  strikingly  appears  in  her  letters  to  her 
son  and  in  her  memorial  of  her  departed  daughter. 

Mrs.  Graham's  philanthropy  overflowed  in  her  school.  It  was  even 
more  plainly  visible  in  her  connection  with  enterprises  outside  of  her 
life  profession.  First  may  be  named  Dr.  John  Mitchell  Mason's  theo- 
logical seminary,  the  first  entitled  to  the  name  upon  this  continent. 
Receiving  unexpected  profit  by  an  investment  in  city  lots  soon  after 
coming  to  New  York,  Mrs.  Graham  writes,  "  Quick,  quick,  let  me  ap- 
propriate the  tenth  before  my  heart  grows  hard."  Half  of  the  tenth 
she  sent  to   missions,  as  already  described,  the  other  fifty 

Her  interest  in  '  .      i  •  a         i  • 

a  theological  pouuds  she  gave  for  a  theological  seminary.  As  this  was 
eemmary.  .^  1796,  the  year  which  Dr.  Mason's  biographer  names  as 

that  when  he  conceived  the  idea  of  the  seminary,  Mrs.  Graham's  gift  must 
have  been  one  of  the  very  first  sums  given  to  theological  schools  on 
this  continent.  Her  pastor's  anxiety  for  trained  preachers,  says  his  son- 
in-law,  came  from  the  fact  that  "  the  seceding  portion  were  deeply  im- 
bued with  evangelical  spirit  and  earnestly  desired  to  strengthen  and 
perpetuate  it."  This  sent  Mason  to  Great  Britain  to  seek  aid.  Mrs. 
Graham  speaks  of  his  mission  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  (1801)  :  "  I  wrote 
you  that  our  dear  IMr.  Mason  leaves  us  next  month  for  Britain.  His 
errand  is  to  state  the  situation  of  this  country,  so  greatly  in  want  of  min- 
isters and  of  the  means  of  educating  ministers.  Many  of  his  people 
are  dissatisfied,  as  he  has  two  congregations  to  supply  and  a  large  family 
of  his  own.  "Why  should  he  be  the  man  ?  For  my  own  part  I  think  he 
is  the  very  man.  Though  I  love  my  minister,  value  his  ministry  and  his 
person,  I  hope  the  general  interest  of  Christ's  body  is  more  dear  to  me, 
and  of  infinitely  more  importance  than  my  private  comfort."  Mrs.  Gra- 
ham followed  closely  her  pastor's  journey  as  he  established  "  articles  of 
correspondence"  with  the  Scotch  Seceders,  and  thus  secured  preachers 
for  America,  and  as  he  gathered  a  thousand  pounds,  mostly  in  London, 
for  his  seminary,  enough  to  secure  its  successful  opening.  This  school, 
let  it  be  noted,  became  the  training  place  of  such  fatliers  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  as  Dr.  John  T.  Pressly  of  Allegheny,  who  calls 
Mason  "one  to  whom  I  am  under  inexpressible  obligations,"  and  Dr. 
David  MacDill  of  Ohio,  who  as  valedictorian  took  leave  of  Dr.  Mason's 
school  with  the  words,  "  To  the  seminary  we  say,  If  I  do  not  remember 


Cent.  XYII.-XIX.]  ISABELLA    GRAHAM.  747 

thee  let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth."  How  deeply 
MacDill,  who  was  in  New  York  city  in  Mrs.  Graham's  time,  and  others 
of  the  students  esteemed  her  may  be  concluded  from  one  of  the  brill- 
iant editorials  of  MacDill  in  the  "  United  Presbyterian."  He  says, 
treating  of  "  Woman's  Rights,"   "  We   admit  no  intellectual  inferiority 

of  the  sex But  the  Christian   church  was  designed  to   train  up 

not  a  Semiramis,  nor  yet  Queen  Elizabeths  nor  Madame  de  Staels,  but 
....  Isabella  Grahams." 

Not  only  in  education,  but  in  missions,  Mrs.  Graham  was  by  her  pas- 
tor's side,  or  ahead  of  him.  Even  while  he  was  abroad,  ^  leader  in  mis- 
meeting  Wilberforce  and  the  great  English  leaders  of  for-  "°"^- 
eign  missions,  and  winning  by  his  sermon  on  "  Messiah's  Throne  "  the 
declaration  from  Robert  Hall,  who  heard  him  in  London,  "  I  can  never 
preach  again  !  "  he  was  still  receiving  impulse  from  the  quiet  woman  in  New 
York.  He  writes  from  Great  Britain  :  "  I  have  just  seen  a  letter  from 
Mrs.  Graham.  She  is  up  riding  on  her  high  places,  but  it  is  all  from  the 
expectation  that  glorious  successes  are  about  to  attend  the  gospel.  She 
reckons  much  on  the  commotions  in  Kentucky  "  (see  Life  XVHL).  As 
early  as  1796  Mrs.  Graham  had  obtained  from  England  missionary 
periodicals,  and  had  secured  a  score  or  so  of  subscribers  for  them.  She 
writes  that  year  to  a  friend  of  the  forming  of  the  New  York  Missionary 
Society.  AVas  not  this,  which  was  for  the  Indians,  the  first  foreign 
missionary  society,  strictly  speaking,  in  Amei'ica  ?  ^  Moreover,  she  raised 
up  a  woman  in  her  pupil  and  assistant,  Miss  Farquharson,  who  became 
(1805)  "  the  first  American  missionary  to  foreign  lands."  How  fully 
she  was  trained  by  Mrs.  Gi'aham  may  be  concluded  from  the  fact  that 
after  they  both  had  left  teaching  they  were  for  six  years  close  compan- 
ions in  missionary  work  in  New  York  city.  Morrison,  the  leader  of 
Christianity  in  China  (Life  XXXVL),  when  in  New  York  was  under 
the  roof  of  Mrs.  Graham,  and  wrote  her  afterwards  as  "  My  ever  dear 
mother  Graham."  Vanderkem^i  and  other  leaders  of  missions  were 
known  to  her  through  their  correspondence  with  her  pastor.  As  an 
important  event  she  noted  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  that  upon  "  the  second 
Wednesday  of  February  (1798),  we  commenced  our  first  monthly 
meeting  for  prayer."  Her  zeal  for  foreign  missions  may  be  left  with  the 
inquiry,  What  woman  was  more  eminently  a  pioneer  of  all  the  vast 
organized  "  woman's  work  for  woman  "  throughout  America  ? 

Mrs.  Graham's  charity  began,  however,  at  home.     In  1797  her  house 
saw  the  forming  of  the  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Poor  Wid-  Her  works  of  pM. 
ows  with  Small  Children,  of  which  she  became  first  direc-  ^^-"ti^'^opy- 
tress.     She  certainly  could  feel  tor  such  widows  if  any  could.     In  the 

1  It  is  of  course  to  be  understood  that  more  than  one  denomination  had,  as  such,  engaged 
in  missions  to  the  Indians,  the  Moravians  having  done  so  most  notably.  But  had  any  as- 
sociation been  formed  within  the  American  church  before  17'J6  for  evangelizing  pagans  as 
its  sole  or  primary  object  ? 


748  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

spring  of  1806  she  presided  at  the  organization  of  the  first  asykim  for 
orphan  children  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Without  waiting  for  a  build- 
ing the  ladies  hired  a  house,  and  Mrs.  Graham  or  one  of  her  daughters 
taught  every  day  until  means  were  raised  to  pay  for  a  teacher.  The  next 
year  a  building  was  begun.  She  was  throughout  life  one  of  the  trustees 
of  this  asylum  property,  which  was  afterwards  exchanged  for  the  present 
beautiful  property  at  Bloomingdale.  In  1811  a  Magdalene  Society  arose 
under  a  board  of  ladies  which  elected  Mrs.  Graham  to  the  office  of  presi- 
dent, which  she  filled  until  her  death. 

Her  efforts  were  called  out  not  merely  by  the  holding  of  office.  She 
gave  an  afternoon  each  week  for  a  time  (1812)  to  teaching  the  catechism 
to  the  children  of  the  Lancasterian  School.  She  was  for  years  a  visitor 
of  the  New  York  Hospital,  especially  of  the  insane  in  it ;  also  of  the  sick 
female  convicts  in  the  State's  prison.  She  joined  (1814)  in  a  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Industry  among  the  Poor,  which  employed  several  hun- 
dred women,  paying  them  for  their  work.  Of  this  she  became  a  manager. 
She  helped  organize  (1814)  the  young  people  working  in  factories  near 
her  home  into  a  Sabbath  Morning  Adult  School,  which  continued  after 
her  death  as  a  Sunday-school.  She  visited  in  a  season  of  distress  upwards 
of  two  hundred  poor  families  (1804-5).  Besides  looking  after  their  bodily 
wants  she  distributed  to  them  Bibles,  and  this  before  the  time  of  the 
Bible  Society,  whose  institution  she  afterwards  joyfully  recorded  (1809). 
"  I  am  not  dealing  in  romance,"  exclaimed  Mason,  recounting  in  his  fu- 
neral discourse  her  works ;  "  the  night  would  be  too  short  for  a  full  enu- 
meration of  her  worthy  deeds.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  ended  but  with 
her  life!" 

To  the  spirit  of  a  philanthropist  Mrs.  Graham  added  that  of  a  patriot. 
Yet  even  in  the  moment  when  the  nation  was  lauding  the 

Her  patriotism.  „  -,      n 

departed  W ashmgton,  she  did  not  lorget  the  deepest  need  of 
her  country.  While  she  joined  to  declare  "  great  things  were  due  him," 
she  yet  hoped  little  from  adulators  who  were  "  bursting  with  gratitude  to 
a  creature,  with  enmity  to  a  Saviour  God."  She  was  ever  intent  on  mak- 
ing America  a  land  pleasant  to  dwell  in,  depending  much  for  this  upon 
the  ministry.  "  In  this  New  World,"  she  asked,  "  shall  such  men  be  reck- 
oned of  none  account,  and  their  labors  of  no  value?  No  !  The  wealth 
of  the  Indies  cannot  balance  their  work!  "  At  Rockaway  Beach,  Long 
Island,  where  she  spent  the  last  five  summers  of  her  life,  and  in  different 
churches  in  New  York  city,  she  lent  strength  to  her  pastors. 

She  was  approaching  her  seventy-second  anniversary  and  was  within 
ten  days  of  it  when  taken  severely  ill.  Two  days  before  (Sabbath)  she 
had  taught  in  her  school  of  adults,  and  sat  at  the  Lord's  table.  The 
day  before  she  had  given  religious  lessons  at  the  orphan  asylum.  Upon 
the  fifth  day  of  her  illness  she  sent  for  an  old  friend,  with  whom  she  had 
an  agreement  that  one  should  attend  the  other's   dying  hours.     With  a 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER.  749 

sweet  expressive  smile  Mrs.  Graham  welcomed  her,  saying,  "  I  am  going 
to  get  the  start  of  you.  I  am  called  home  before  you.  It  will  be  your 
office  to  fulfill  our  engagement."  Three  days  she  sank,  ever  full  of  joy. 
"  Yet  I  could  weep,"  she  said,  "  for  sins  against  so  good  a  God."  When 
very  low  and  able  to  say  but  one  word,  that  word,  accompanied  with  a 
smile,  was  "  Peace."  Within  two  days  of  her  anniversary,  July  27, 
1814,  she  fell  asleep.  Her  burial  was  without  eulogy.-^  A  month  later 
Dr.  Mason  celebrated  her  memory  in  noble  words,  which  were  published 
under  the  title  of  "  Christian  Mourning." 

Although  Isabella  Graham  was  a  genuine  product  of  the  Secession 
churches  of  Scotland,  cherishing  their  communion  and  their  psalms,  car- 
rying in  her  pocket,  as  a  part  of  her  "  Provision  for  Passing  over  Jor- 
dan," one  always  used  by  her  pastor  upon  sacramental  occasions,  the 
tender  one  hundred  and  third,  "0  thou  my  soul, "bless  God  the  Lord;" 
she  was  nevertheless  not  the  property  of  the  "psalm-singing"  churches 
only,  but  was  given  by  them  to  the  Church  Universal,  and  especially  to 
the  women  of  the  church  in  America,  who  look  back  to  this  Christian 
daughter,  sister,  wife,  mother,  lover  of  her  kind,  not  indeed  as  a  "  saint," 
yet  as  "  a  witness  and  a  leader."  —  H.  M.  M. 


LIFE   XXVI.    ARCHIBALD   ALEXANDER. 

A.   D.  1772-A.  D.  1851.      PRESBYTERIAN, AMERICA. 

The  overflow  of  Scottish  population  into  the  northern  parts  of  Ire- 
land, which  took  place  at  various  times,  but  reached  a  climax  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  resulted  in  the  formation  of  what  was  virtually  a  new 
race,  known  as  the  Scotch-Irish.  There  was  doubtless,  in  some  instances, 
admixture  of  blood,  but  in  many  cases,  as  in  that  of  the  Alexanders, 
there  seems  to  have  been  none  whatever ;  yet  the  new  settlers,  whilst 
retaining  the  most  strongly  marked  peculiarities  of  their  ancestral  stock, 
unquestionably  laid  aside  some  of  the  traits  of  their  Caledonian  fore- 
fathers, and  acquired  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  southern  Celt. 
Thus  there  were  combined  in  happy  proportion  in  the  character  of  this 
stalwart  people  the  best  qualities  of  both  the  older  races.  There  was 
one  thing  above  all  others,  in  which  the  Scottish  immigrant  refused  to 

1  Funeral  addresses  were  distasteful  to  her  pastor.  Dr.  Mason.  "  When  his  son  James 
died  at  Carlisle,"  says  Dr.  MacCartee,  "  I  went  there  to  attend  the  funeral  and  was  re- 
quested by  some  members  of  the  family  to  beg  the  doctor  to  allow  an  address  to  be  made 
at  the  grave  for  the  sake  of  his  son's  young  companions  in  college.  I  did  so.  He  at  once 
replied,  'No,  no,  these  things  are  so  often  abused.'  Of  course,  I  did  not  urge  the  mat- 
ter. As  the  young  men  who  served  as  pall-bearers  lifted  the  coffin,  the  afflicted  father  ex- 
claimed, in  tones  wliich  those  present  can  never  forget,  '  Young  men  !  tread  lightly,  j'e 
bear  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost! '  Then,  overcome  by  his  feelings,  he  dropped  his  head 
upon  my  shoulder  and  said,  '  Dear  MacCartee,  say  something,  which  God  may  bless,  to 
his  young  friends.'  "  An  address  was  made,  and  very  soon  a  revival,  powerful  and  pre- 
cious in  its  fruits,  began  in  the  college  and  the  town. 


750         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

walk  in  the  steps  of  the  man  of  Donegal  or  Tipperary,  and  that  was 
his  religion.  If  it  is  true  that  the  denizen  of  Southern  Ireland  is  inflex- 
ible in  his  adhesion  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  is  equally  true  that  his 
northern  neighbor  is  not  a  whit  less  firm  in  his  hold  upon  the  tenets  and 
usages  of  Protestantism.  Indeed,  wherever  it  has  been  carried,  the  name 
Scotch-Irish  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  synonym  for  the  word  Presby- 
terian. 

Not  content  with  their  translation  from  one  to  another  of  the  British 
Bv  birth  a  vir-  Islands,  large  numbers  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  joined  the 
g'"'"'"-  colonies   that  had  effected  settlements  in  America.     One  of 

these  settlements  was  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  Archibald  Alexander 
was  born  near  Timber  Ridge,  in  Augusta  (now  Rockbridge)  County, 
Virginia,  on  the  17th  of  April,  1772.  His  father  was  of  an  honora- 
ble lineage,  being  a  scion  of  the  ancient  house  of  the  MacAlexanders 
of  Tarbert,  in  Kentyre.  His  mother  was  Ann  Reid,  the  estimable 
daughter  of  a  wealthy  land-holder  of  the  same  colony.  Both  of  Archi- 
bald's parents  were  reputable  and  pious  people.  The  house  in  which 
Archibald  first  saw  the  light  was,  like  most  others  of  that  day,  built 
of  square  logs,  and  was  situated  not  far  from  a  little  mountain-stream, 
familiarly  styled  South  River.  When  he  was  about  three  years  old  his 
father  removed,  to  the  south  of  the  North  River,  to  what  was  known 
as  the  Forks,  a  name  given  to  the  whole  territory  lying  between  the 
James  River  and  its  north  branch.  The  scenery  of  the  fertile  region 
in  which  the  future  theologian's  boyhood  was  passed  was  in  a  high  de- 
gree picturesque  and  romantically  beautiful.  Not  many  miles  away  was 
the  famous  Stone  Bridge,  or  "  Natural  Bridge,"  as  it  is  universally  de- 
nominated, and  in  plain  view  rose  the  cerulean  outlines  of  the  House  and 
the  Jump  Mountains.  Archibald's  father  inherited  from  his  ancestors  a 
love  of  books,  and  in  common  with  his  Scotch-Irish  neighbors  knew  the 
value  of  learning.  Archibald  was,  like  young  David,  "  ruddy  and  of  a 
beautiful  countenance."  From  the  first  he  showed  signs  of  intellectual 
vivacity,  and  was  selected  out  of  a  family  of  nine  children  as  the  one 
who  was  to  receive  a  liberal  education.  Like  the  rest  he  was  early  put  to 
school.  His  first  teacher  was  "  Jack  Reardon,"  an  English  convict,  who 
had  been  transported  for  crime  and  was  a  servant  of  his  father.  From 
him  he  learned  little  more,  he  says,  than  how  to  exercise  his  lungs. 
Then  he  fell  under  the  tuition  of  one  Stevenson,  and  afterwards  of  an- 
other Englishman  and  "  redemptioner "  of  the  name  of  Rhodes.  He 
looked  back  upon  the  year  under  them  with  much  satisfaction. 

At  ten  years  of  age  Archibald  was  placed  under  the  guidance  of  the 
His  masters  Grar  ^^^-  William  Graham,  a  graduate  of  the  College  of  New 
ham,  Priestly.  Jersey,  who  had  set  up,  at  Timber  Ridge  Meeting-House, 
the  Liberty  Hall  Academy,  a  chartered  institution  which  had  been  taken 
under  the  care  of  Hanover  Presbytery,  and  was  afterwards  developed 


Cext.  XVII.-XIX.]    ARCHIBALD   ALEXANDER.  751 

into  Washington  College.  The  school  had  existed  before  Mr.  Graham 
came  into  the  State,  but  at  a  point  some  six  or  seven  miles  to  the  east. 
It  was  now  situated  on  the  edge  of  Mr.  Alexander's  estate.  The  build- 
ings had  not  yet  gone  up,  and  meanwhile  studies  were  carried  on  in  one 
of  the  upper  rooms  of  Mr.  Graham's  house.  Here  it  was  that  the  bloom- 
ing boy  was  admitted  to  some  intimacy  with  classical  learning.  His 
master  taught  few  books,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  warning  his  pupils 
against  the  danger  of  forming  their  opinions  from  the  number,  or  even 
from  the  weight,  of  the  authorities  that  could  be  cited  in  their  support, 
instead  of  adopting  them  as  the  result  of  their  own  independent  re- 
flection. Some  of  the  young  men  took  this  advice  kindly  and  profited 
by  it,  among  whom  was  Archibald  Alexander.  To  others  it  proved  a 
stumbling-block. 

Another  of  his  masters,  and  the  one  with  whom  he  was  brought  into 
the  closest  daily  contact,  was  James  Priestly,  the  usher,  a  man  equally 
remarkable  in  his  way,  and  one  who  stimulated  to  the  utmost  young 
Archibald's  dawning  genius  and  slumbering  love  of  learning.  Some- 
times he  would  take  the  boys  to  a  romantic  spot,  where  a  large  spring 
breaks  from  the  hill-side  and  pours  itself  noisily  into  the  river  below. 
Here  Priestly  would  harangue  his  pupils  in  the  words  of  Demosthenes, 
and  with  all  the  fire  that  could  have  been  looked  for  in  the  Grecian  ora- 
tor. His  wondering  disciple,  from  whose  recollections  we  make  this 
report,  says  that  when  the  sentiments  he  uttered  were  sublime,  the  gifted 
usher  would  be  raised  to  such  heights  of  enthusiasm  as  to  be  transported 
beyond  himself. 

Notwithstanding  the  advantage  of  such  teachers,  our  young  scholar 
made  at  this  time  what  he  conceived  to  be  but  humble  attainments. 
This  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  usher's  judgment,  though,  for  he 
spoke  of  him  to  his  father  as  a  boy  of  great  promise.  The  school  had 
become  very  corrupt,  and  Archibald  had  fallen  into  several  doubtful  (or 
more  than  doubtful)  practices,  though  restrained  by  bashfulness  or  timid- 
ity (as  he  says)  from  going  to  the  point  of  excess  that  had  been  reached 
by  other  of  the  boys.  He  also  was  favored  about  this  time  with  the  in- 
structions of  a  new  usher,  Archibald  Roane,  afterwards  governor  of  Ten- 
nessee. This  was  when  he  was  entering  uijon  the  study  of-  Horace.  On 
the  departure  of  Mr.  Roane,  Archibald  fell  more  constantly  than  before 
under  the  tuition  of  Mr.  Graham.  The  curriculum  of  studies  was  the 
same  as  Dr.  Witherspoon's  at  Princeton.  They  had  the  same  text-books, 
and  transcribed  Witherspoon's  lectures  on  moral  philosophy  and  criti- 
cism. It  was  the  desire  of  the  principal  that  Archibald  should  take  a 
regular  degree ;  and  there  was  no  doubt  entertained  of  his  ability  to  do 
so,  as  he  had  always  been  placed  in  the  first  grade,  though  he  himself 
modestly  ascribed  the  favor  shown  him  more  to  his  youth  and  small  stat- 
ure, and  to  his  prompt  answers,  than  to  any  solid  desert.     It  turned  out, 


752  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

however,  when  his  father  came  back  from  a  journey  to  Fredericksburg, 
that  he  had  made  an  engagement  for  him  as  tutor  in  the  family  of  Gen- 
eral Posey,  of  the  Wilderness,  twelve  miles  west  of  that  city. 

In  this  situation  Mr.  Alexander  did  a  great  deal  of  hard  reading,  and 
acquired  at  this  time  the  foundation  of  all  the  accuracy  he  afterwards 
gained  in  the  Latin  language.  In  his  latter  years  he  has  been  heard  to 
say  that  for  half  a  century  he  had  read  more  Latin  than  English.  His 
reading  of  authors  in  the  vernacular  was  miscellaneous  and  discursive. 
He  addicted  himself  much  to  history  and  travels,  and  indeed  everything 
that  could  give  him  information.  His  thirst  for  knowledge  was  at  all 
periods  of  his  life  unquenchable.  He  tried  to  interest  himself  in  Locke's 
Essay,  but  failed  to  comprehend  it ;  and  it  was  not  till  long  afterwards 
that  he  disclosed  his  extraordinary  proclivity  for  the  science  of  the  mind 
which  became  his  favorite  branch  of  study. 

At  General  Posey's  he   met  an  aged   Christian  lady,  Mrs.  Tyler,  a 

member  of  the  Baptist  Church,  who  gradually  succeeded  in 

the  agent  in  his   turning  his  thoughts  more  and  more  into  religious  channels. 

conversion.  i-ii-  ii-  t  •     t         i  ^ 

bhe  conversed  with  hmi,  put  books  into  his  hands,  and  went 
with  him  to  hear  preachers.  She  was  a  lover  of  the  writings  of  John 
Flavel,  and  naturally  wished  to  put  his  books  in  the  hands  of  her  Pres- 
byterian friend.  Learning  that  Flavel  was  a  Presbyterian  he  sought  at 
once  to  discover  what  were  his  views  of  regeneration.  He  was  a  total 
stranger  to  works  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  He  was  not  even 
aware  that  any  such  works  had  been  written ;  though  he  had  often  heard 
of  the  infidel  arguments,  he  had  not  hitherto  paid  any  attention  to  them. 
Now  he  calmly  interrogated  himself  as  to  the  ground  of  his  belief. 
This  he  felt  all  the  more  urged  to  do,  as  so  large  a  number  of  intelligent 
Virginians,  and  others,  had  embraced  the  deistical  views  that  had  been 
propagated  from  France.  Into  a  trunk  of  classical  and  scientific  books 
that  had  been  sent  to  him  from  home  some  kind  lady  had  thrown  a  cheap 
pamphlet  which  he  had  often  seen  tossing  about  the  house,  and  which  he 
was  now  displeased  to  recognize.  On  opening  it,  however,  he  was  at 
once  arrested  by  the  title,  "  Internal  Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
by  Soame  Jenyns,  Esq."  The  family  had  gone  to  church,  and  he  sat 
down  to  read.  The  effect  upon  his  mind  was  overwhelming.  When  he 
ceased,  the  room  had  the  appearance  of  being  illuminated.  He  had  not 
been  without  transient  religious  impressions  while  yet  a  little  boy  in  Au- 
gusta. Once  the  seriousness  vanished  instantly  from  his  mind  on  hearing 
his  parents  speak  slightingly  of  the  sermon.  Now  he  began  to  be  in 
concern.  Before  this  he  had  often  prayed  mentally  at  critical  times,  but 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  secret  prayer.  Now,  every  fair  morning,  he  went 
out  into  the  fields  to  meditate.  Having  found  some  plots  of  green  grass, 
fchut  in  by  thickets,  and  overhung  by  great  beech  trees,  he  made  a  booth 
or  arbor  with  his  knife ;  and  used  to  resort  to  this  sequestered  spot 


Cext.  XVIL-XIX.]    ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER.  753 

with  his  book  on  the  Lord's  Day.  On  a  particular  Sunday  evening  the 
place  became  solemn  and  delightful  to  such  a  degree  that  he  was  loatlj  to 
return  home.  This  was  not  accompanied  by  a  radical  reformation  of  char- 
acter. Mrs.  Tyler  was  accustomed  to  make  use  of  his  services  as  a  reader. 
One  Sabbath  evening  he  had  been  led  to  select  Flavel's  "  Method  of 
Grace,"  and  the  sermon  on  Revelation  iii.  20,  "  Behold,  I  stand  at  the 
door  and  knock."  The  discourse  was  upon  "  the  patience  and  forbear- 
ance and  kindness  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  impenitent  and  obstinate  sin- 
ners." As  he  read  on,  his  voice  began  to  falter,  and  at  length  he  laid 
down  the  book,  rose  up  hastily,  and  with  a  full  heart  repaired  to  his 
little  sylvan  oratory.  There  he  threw  himself  upon  his  knees ;  and  after 
some  minutes  was  overwhelmed  with  a  flood  of  joy.  He  did  not  after- 
wards remember  that  he  had  at  this  moment  any  distinct  views  of  Christ. 

For  a  few  days  he  walked  carefully  ;  but  in  a  week  his  former  feelings 
returned,  and  when  he  was  tempted  he  transgressed  as  before.  The  rec- 
ollection filled  him  the  next  day  with  unutterable  anguish.  The  inter- 
course with  Flavel  and  good  Mrs.  Tyler  enabled  him  to  comprehend  better 
than  he  had  done  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  the  Christian  system.  A  little 
book,  "  Jenks  on  Justification  by  Faith,"  which  fell  into  his  hands  about 
this  time,  had  an  effect  not  unlike  the  perusal  of  Soame  Jenyns.  Before 
he  had  been  leaning  on  the  old  covenant  ;  now  everything  appeared 
clear  as  if  written  with  a  sunbeam.  A  good  sermon  was  a  feast  now  to 
the  ardent  young  inquirer.  This  year,  1788-1789,  he  afterwards  re- 
garded as  an  epoch  in  his  spiritual  history.  If  not  actually  regenerated, 
he  was  at  this  period  much  enlightened  and  savingly  awakened.  He  now 
began  to  seek  for  the  truth  as  for  hid  treasure.  To  John  Flavel,  he  was 
wont  to  say,  he  certainly  owed  more  than  to  any  uninspired  writer. 

At  the  end  of  a  year  he  returned  to  his  native  haunts  among  the 
mountains  of  Rockbridge.  This  was  the  era  of  the  "  Great  Religious  expe- 
Revival,"  as  it  was  called,  and  the  Presbyterians  of  the  day  thr'''Great°Ie. 
were  divided  into  the  Old  Side  and  New  Side,  agreeably  to  vivai." 
their  inclination  to  frown  upon  or  to  encourage  the  awakening.  The 
friends  of  Mr.  Alexander  belonged  as  a  general  thing  to  the  Old  Side. 
His  pastor  and  old  preceptor,  Mr.  Graham,  had  been  invited  across  the 
mountains  to  witness  the  revival  scenes,  and  took  his  former  pupil  along 
with  him.  On  the  way  a  novel  and  impressive  sight  presented  itself.  A 
large  company  of  young  people  moved  slowly  by  on  horseback,  sing- 
ing hymns.  Most  of  them  were  young  converts,  who  had  attended  the 
Rev.  Nash  Legrand  from  Caswell  County,  North  Carolina.  They  had 
traveled  fifty  or  sixty  miles  in  order  to  attend  the  sacrament,  and  were 
full  of  zeal  and  of  solemn  and  tender  feeling. 

As  soon  as  nearly  all  the  people  who  were  returning  had  passed,  they 
espied  the  imposing  figure  of  Dr.  John  Blair  Smith,  the  son  of  the  ven- 
erable Dr.  Robert  Smith,  of  Pequea,  Pennsylvania,  and  a  brother  of 
48 


754  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

tlie  famous  President  Samuel  Stanhope  Smith,  of  Princeton.  The  two 
clergymen  saluted  one  another  heartily.  Mr,  Graham  was  soon  induced 
to  cooperate  with  the  movement ;  and  his  pupil  never  knew  a  man  to 
be  more  transformed.  They  visited  Prince  Edward,  and  were  hospita- 
bly received  at  Hampden  Sidney,  of  which  Dr.  Smith  had  resigned  the 
management  into  the  hands  of  the  Rev.  Drury  Lacy,  of  "  the  silver 
hand."  Hearing  much  whilst  on  this  journey  of  bodily  convulsions,  Mr. 
Alexander  was  much  perturbed  at  the  want  of  these  physical  manifesta- 
tions in  his  own  case.  The  travelers  journeyed  to  the  verge  of  "  the 
mountain  "  again,  into  Bedford,  and  when  they  had  arrived  at  Liberty 
were  joined  by  a  large  party  of  friends  from  Rockbridge,  among  whom 
was  Mr.  Alexander's  eldest  sister.  While  at  Liberty  he  went  a  little  out 
of  town  to  a  thicket  near  a  wood  for  meditation  and  prayer.  Suddenly 
there  came  over  him  such  a  melting  of  heart  as  he  never  knew  before  or 
after.  In  looking  back  upon  this  experience  in  after  life,  the  subject  of 
these  pleasing  emotions  was  disposed  to  ascribe  it  to  a  quick  change  in  the 
animal  system,  and  to  the  relief  arising  from  a  flow  of  pent-up  tears. 
This  gush  of  feeling  was  succeeded  by  a  sweet  composure  of  spirit.  He 
could  not  recall  any  thought  of  Christ,  or  much  contrition  for  sin.  In  a 
few  hours  everything  was  as  it  had  been  before.  He  was  gradually 
brought  to  the  conclusion  that  his  case  was  desperate,  and  that  he  would 
certainly  be  damned.  This  was  a  sober  and  deliberate  influence,  and  pro- 
duced no  agitation.  The  justice  of  God,  it  seemed  to  him,  could  be  satis- 
fied in  no  other  way. 

On  their  return  to  Lexington  the  young  disciples,  in  the  simplicity  of 
their  hearts,  fully  expected  an  immediate  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  among 
their  neighbors  and  friends ;  nor  were  they  wholly  disappointed.  Some, 
however,  opposed  the  work  of  grace,  and  some  good  men  looked  coldly 
upon  it.  Much  extravagance  and  some  fanaticism  had  been  mixed  up 
with  the  revival,  though  in  Virginia  the  preaching  had  been  uniformly 
sound,  and  the  measures  resorted  to  were  commonly  Scriptural.  One  day 
in  the  forest,  at  the  foot  of  a  projecting  rock  in  a  dark  valley,  Alexander 
tasted  the  bitter  cup  of  despair.  He  knelt  upon  the  ground,  and  poured 
out  a  broken  cry  for  help,  when  in  a  moment  he  had  such  a  view  of  the 
crucified  Redeemer  as  was  without  parallel  in  his  after  experience,  filling 
his  mind  with  joy  and  even  transport.  For  a  few  days  he  was  full  of 
serenity,  and  yet  he  soon  fell  back  into  darkness.  In  the  autumn  of  the 
year  1789.  he  made  an  open  profession  of  his  faith.  His  first  communion 
was  not  on  the  whole  a  comfortable  one.  He  greatly  feared,  lest  he  had 
eaten  and  drunk  damnation  to  himself.  The  second  approach  that  he 
made  to  the  Lord's  table  was,  however,  an  occasion  of  delightful  peace 
and  assurance. 

In  subsecjuent  controversies  about  what  were  styled  "  new  measures," 
there  were  some  who  called  Dr.  Alexander  a  cold  recluse  who  had  nevei 


Cent.  XVH.-XIX.]     ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER.  755 

felt  the  glow  of  revival  warmth  in  his  own  heart,  little  imagining  in  the 
midst  of  what  scenes  he  had  been  awakened  and  converted.  Soon  after 
becoming  a  communicant  he  began  to  study  for  the  ministry,  and  was  sent 
as  a  ruling  elder  to  Philadelphia,  to  the  meeting  of  the  general  assembly, 
where  he  first  saw  Witherspoon  and  other  leaders,  and  attended  upon  the 
debates  with  the  keenest  interest. 

After  the  completion  of  his  theological  studies,  he  was  licensed  as  a 
probationer  for  the  gospel  ministry,  and  was  sent  out  by  the  ,  a    i 

synod  of  Virginia  as  a  missionary  into  the  sparsely  occu-  sipnary  through 
pied  territory  within  their  bounds.  He  was  accompanied 
on  this  errand  by  a  classmate,  a  young  man  of  talents  and  piety.  For  sis 
months  they  journeyed  on  horseback,  going  from  house  to  house  in  the 
hospitable  country.  One  night  they  had  much  conversation  with  James 
Shelburue,  an  old  mill-wright,  wearing  a  leathern  apron,  who  (though  an 
unlettered  man)  had  become  a  Baptist  preacher.  They  felt  it  to  be  their 
duty  to  question  him  as  to  his  call  to  the  ministry ;  but  before  he  was  done 
with  them,  the  old  man  made  them  look  with  some  doubt  on  their  own 
call.  Their  way  lay  through  Charlotte  and  Prince  Edward,  and  after 
their  separation  Mr.  Alexander  took  charge  of  the  churches  of  Brien's 
and  Cumberland. 

This  region  had  enjoyed  the  pastoral  services  of  the  Rev.  William 
Robinson,  one  of  the  pioneers,  the  Rev.  Robert  Henry,  whose  ministry 
had  been  greatly  helpful  to  the  blacks,  and  of  that  great  man,  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Davies,  afterwards  president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  ;  and 
there  were  some  who  still  remembered  the  incomparable  eloquence  of 
Whitefield,  who  had  passed  through  the  country.  The  conditions  of  life 
in  the  new  settlements  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  had  produced  many  re- 
markable characters,  some  of  whom  are  not  unknown  to  fame.  Others 
lived  in  greater  obscurity.  Col.  Samuel  Venable  used  to  be  likened  by 
Mr.  Alexander  to  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Brown  to 
Jonathan  Edwards.  In  this  region  lived  two  of  the  greatest  orators 
whom  America  has  produced,  —  Patrick  Henry  and  John  Randolph  of 
Roanoke.  It  so  chanced  that  the  subject  of  this  memoir  was  present  at 
Charlotte  Court  on  the  occasion  of  the  meeting  of  these  distinguished 
men  for  the  first  and  only  time  of  their  lives  at  the  same  hustings.  He 
was  already  acquainted  with  Henry  (then  old  and  infirm),  and  afterwards 
numbered  Randolph  among  his  hearers,  he  having  been  known  to  make 
a  detour  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  Alexander  preach.  Among  the  in- 
timate friends  of  this  period  were  the  eccentric  but  gifted  Conrad  Speece, 
a  preacher  of  great  originality  and  force,  and  the  Rev.  John  H.  Rice, 
one  of  the  foremost  men  in  the  roll  of  the  Virginia  ministry,  the  founder 
of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Prince  Edward. 

For  a  short  time  Mr.  Alexander  was  president  of  Hampden  Sidney 
College,  which  had  fallen  into  a  very  low  state.  He  was  chosen  by 
the   Presbytery  of   Hanover  a  commissioner   to   the  general  assembly 


756  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

which  adopted  the  famous  "  Plan  of  Union,"   the  repeal  of  which  led  to 
the  disruption   of  the   old  church.      Before   returninor    he 

President  of  ^'  ,  „  ,  ,  ,,/,•, 

Hampden-sid-  went  as  a  delegate  irom  the  general  assembly  (which  at 
"^^'  this  period  always  met  in  Philadelphia,  then  the  chief  city 

of  the  land)  to  the  general  association  of  Connecticut,  and  took  the  oc- 
casion to  make  an  extensive  journey  through  New  England,  where  he 
formed  the  acquaintance,  and  received  the  hospitable  courtesies,  of  the 
venerable  Samuel  Hopkins,  and  others  equally  noted.  Mr.  Alexander 
engaged  in  amicable  discussion  with  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  new  the- 
ology, and  seems  to  have  made  a  favorable  impression  on  the  people  with 
whom  he  was  brought  in  contact.  He  preached  everywhere,  and  always 
in  the  free  and  hearty  style  to  which  he  had  accustomed  himself  in  Vir- 
ginia, never  taking  a  note  into  the  pulpit.  He  had  schooled  himself  to 
follow  trains  of  premeditated  reasoning,  and  was  prone  to  indulge  in 
graceful  rhetorical  embellishments.  He  was  small,  with  a  dark,  piercing 
eye,  and  a  flute-like  voice  that  vibrated  with  emotion  and  penetrated  to 
any  distance. 

Declining  the  appointment  of  Phillips  professor  in  Dartmouth  College, 
on  his  return  to  his  native  State,  he  was  married  to  Janetta  Waddel,  a 
daughter  of  the  celebrated  James  "Waddel,  of  Louisa  County,  the 
"  blind  preacher "  of  Mr.  Wirt's  "  British  Spy,"  and  an  orator  the  ac- 
counts of  whom  seem  almost  fabulous,  and  remind  one  of  the  stories  of 
Patrick  Henry  and  Whitefield.  In  1801  he  had  been  invited  to  a  pas- 
torate in  Baltimore,  but  did  not  accede  to  the  call.  A  few  years  later  he 
became  the  successor  of  Dr.  Milledoler,  in  Philadelphia,  with  the  pas- 
toral care  of  the  Third  Presbyterian  Church,  in  Pine  Street.  The  peo- 
ple he  ministered  to  were  of  simple  manners,  and  contained  many  from 
fhe  neighborhood  of  the  navy  yard,  with  a  considerable  proportion  of 
shipmasters  and  pilots.  The  predominant  ingredient  was  the  good  old 
Scotch-Irish  element  he  was  so  fimiliar  with.  His  labors  here  were 
faithful  and  most  acceptable,  though  irksome,  and  were  pursued  in  a 
climate  unfavorable  to  Mr.  Alexander's  health.  The  studies  of  his  ear- 
lier days  were  now  much  enlarged,  and  a  goodly  number  of  volumes 
began  to  fill  the  shelves  of  his  library.  Among  other  linguistic  studies 
he  took  lessons  in  Hebrew,  under  a  learned  Jew  by  the  name  of  Hor- 
witz.  During  a  great  part  of  his  life  Mr.  Alexander  was  in  the  habit 
of  reading  at  least  one  chapter  daily  in  the  Hebrew  Bible. 

In  the  year  1812,  Archibald  Alexander  was  appointed  by  tlie  general 
assembly  professor  of  the   theological    seminary  that  had 

At  forty  is  .,  -r-,.  -i-i  -iii  i 

fatherof  Prince-  just  been  set  up  at  Princctou.  I'  or  a  time  the  whole  work 
of  organizing  the  institution,  under  the  plan  of  the  assem- 
bly, was  in  the  hands  of  Alexander,  then  just  forty  years  old.  He  had 
no  predecessor,  and  had  scarcely  a  precedent.  He  devoted  himself,  not 
only  to  the  outward  administration,  but  to  Hebrew,  Greek,  criticism,  her- 
meneutics,  and  theology,  including  dogmengeschichte.    This  was  the  year 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER.  151 

of  the  war  with  England,  which  was  carried  on,  however,  almost  exclu- 
sively on  the  high  seas.  Late  in  the  following  year  he  was  joined  by 
Dr.  Samuel  Miller,  who  was  his  colleague  for  nearly  forty  years,  and 
with  whom,  dui-ing  that  entire  period,  he  lived  in  unbroken  harmony  and 
tender  love.  Dr.  Miller  assumed  the  chair  of  history  and  polity.  Never 
were  two  men  more  unlike.  Dr.  Miller  had  been  formed  on  the  stately 
model  of  President  Stanhope  Smith.  He  was  not  only  a  perfect  speci- 
men of  the  Christian  gentleman,  but  was  regular  as  a  clock  in  all  his 
habits,  and  singularly  punctilious  in  his  regard  for  all  the  niceties  of  the 
social  rubric.  He  was  a  truly  aifable,  learned,  godly  man,  and  a  man 
of  excellent  ability.  As  time  brought  its  changes,  others  were  added  to 
the  faculty,  as  notably  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  who  was  to  exert  such  a 
mighty  influence  on  the  church,  and  whom  his  theological  preceptor  and 
associate  likened  to  Calvin  without  his  severity.  Yet  the  older  race  of 
students  naturally  thought  first  of  the  two  original  professors.  Dr. 
Alexander  was  now  exactly  at  his  meridian.  He  was  at  this  time,  as  at 
all  times,  severely  bound  down  by  no  rules,  except  such  as  are  dictated 
by  Christian  propriety.  Scrupulously  clean,  he  seemed  to  give  no  thought 
to  his  dress.  Though  his  study  door  was  open  to  anybody  and  every- 
body, he  was  sometimes  known  to  show  amiable  signs  of  weariness.  He 
was  in  all  things  preeminently  a  child  of  nature  as  well  as  of  grace.  In 
the  pulpit  he  was  at  his  best  when  purely  extemporaneous.  A  learned 
chief  justice  once  styled  him,  jocosely,  "  the  prince  of  Methodist  preach- 
ers." Just  at  this  point,  a  memorable  change  took  place  in  his  genei'al 
mode  of  life.  Although  in  his  youth  a  bold  and  expert  horseman,  and 
one  who  lived  much  in  the  open  air  and  in  the  saddle,  he  now  con- 
fined himself  strictly  to  exercise  in  his  carriage,  and  as  the  years  ad- 
vanced became  a  voluntary  prisoner  to  his  study,  and  almost  literally  to 
his  well-worn  elbow-chair.  A  corresponding  change  occurred  in  his 
preaching.  Until  near  seventy  he  did  not  take  paper  into  the  pulpit,  ex- 
cept on  the  occasion  of  his  trials  before  presbytery.  Now  he  took  to 
reading,  and  with  a  marked  decline  in  the  power  of  his  delivery.  At  the 
close  he  used  to  push  up  his  spectacles  on  his  forehead,  cast  those  light- 
ning glances  about  him,  and  launch  out  untrammeled  as  if  upon  his  na- 
tive element.  The  raising  of  his  glasses  always  acted  on  his  auditors 
like  a  sudden  burst  of  sunshine.  The  March  winds  preyed  fearfully  on 
his  nervous  system,  and  he  was  urged  by  Dr.  Rice  and  other  of  his  Vir- 
ginia friends  to  consult  his  health  and  return  to  the  South.  He  con- 
sented so  far  as  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  more  active  experience,  where 
he  was  received  with  open  arms  by  attracted  crowds,  and  where  his 
preaching  made  an  impression  that  is  remembered  to  this  day.  Some- 
what later  he  reluctantly  declined  an  invitation  to  a  chair  in  the  Virginia 
Union  Theological  Seminary. 

Mr.  Alexander,  from  this  time  onward,  buried  himself  more  and  more 
among  the  Latin   theologians  of  the  seventeenth  century.     His   method 


758  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Pkriod  V. 

of  teaching  was  partly  by  text-book  and  partly  by  lecture  ;  partly,  also, 
by  animated  criticisms  upon  the  written  theses  of  the  students,  as  well 
as  upon  their  oral  discussions.  He  was  surprisingly  versed  in  geography 
and  the  exact  sciences.  His  topograj^hical  faculty  was  something  mar- 
velous. He  never  forgot  a  road  or  a  way-mark,  and  had  the  charges  of 
his  widely  scattered  jDupils,  and  indeed  the  minutest  localities  of  the 
entire  country,  so  far  as  he  was  acquainted  with  it,  mapped  off  in  his 
mind  with  all  the  particularity  of  a  drawn  chart.  He  was  still  devoted 
to  metaphysical  inquiries,  and  paid  great  attention  to  the  evidences  and 
the  canon,  and  brought  out  popular  works  on  these  subjects,  as'  well  as  on 
the  history  of  the  Jews  and  the  history  of  the  colonization  of  Liberia, 
and  in  his  later  years  an  admirable  treatise  on  ethics.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
MacGuffey,  long  the  brilliant  professor  of  mental  philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Virginia,  once  remarked  to  the  writer,  that  whenever  Dr. 
Alexander  touched  an  intricate  question  in  intellectual  or  moral  science, 
it  was  "  with  the  spear  of  Ithuriel."  His  elaborate  reply  to  Dr.  Murdoch 
on  the  "  Atonement,"  and  to  Dr.  .John  Brown,  of  Edinburgh,  on  the 
"  Nature  of  Cause,"  were  greatly  admired  for  the  fairness,  the  lucidity, 
and  the  cogency  of  their  argument.  Dr.  Alexander  was  to  some  extent 
implicated  in  the  ecclesiastical  movements  connected  with  the  division  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  1837  and  1838,  into  the  branches  known  as 
Old  and  New  School,  but  always  deprecated  the  agitation 

A  peacemaker.  -,•    .  ■  •  ^  i 

which  made  that  division  a  necessity,  and  pursued  a  course 

throughout  in  his  relations  with  both  parties,  that  was  marked  by  his  char- 
acteristic prudence  and  wisdom.  The  position  he  occupied  was  a  pecul- 
iarly trying  one,  and  it  is  generally  allowed  that  in  his  conduct  he  united 
candor  and  fairness  with  delicacy  and  Christian  affection. 

The  last  years  of  his  life  were  uneventful,  but  abundant  in  labors  in 
the  professor's  chair  and  among  the  congregations.  In  the  class-room 
and  in  the  conference  on  Sabbath  afternoon,  his  eye  would  kindle  and 
his  face  shine,  and  he  sometimes,  on  these  occasions,  in  reasoning  and 
power  of  analysis,  in  lucid  statement  and  ripe  spiritual  wisdom,  seemed 
raised  above  himself,  and  spoke  like  one  almost  inspired.  His  sermons 
lacked  much  of  the  earlier  pictorial  quality,  but  if  less  graphic  were,  if 
possible,  even  more  perspicuous  and  accurate,  and  certainly  more  pro- 
found. His  forte  was  clearly  in  experimental  theology.  His  knowledge 
of  fallen  human  nature,  especially  when  under  the  workings  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  was  so  amazing  that  President  Woolsey,  late  of  Yale  College, 
one  of  his  pupils,  has  even  ventured  so  far  as  to  call  him  "  the  Shake- 
speare of  the  human  heart."  In  person  and  manner  he  was  said  to  re- 
semble William  Wilberforce,  the  English  philanthropist  and  Christian 
author.  Tlie  most  obvious  trait  of  his  preaching  was  its  simplicity. 
Children  and  servants  could  understand  all  he  said.  This  was  also  the 
distinguishing  trait  of  his  whole  character,  "  his  utter  simplicity."  His 
modesty  and  self-forgetful  naivete  were  those  of  a  little  child. 


Cent.  XVU.-XIX.]    ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER.  759 

■  "When  in  his  prime  he  was  thin,  though  he  afterwards  grew  more  stout, 
with  an  inclination  to  corpulence ;  his  complexion  was  clear,  jj;^  personal  ap- 
and  his  soft  brown  hair  already  beginning  to  be  silvered,  P<=arance. 
albeit  it  never  became  altogether  white ;  his  countenance  was  wonder- 
fully mobile  and  animated,  and  his  eye  that  of  an  eagle.  Latterly  he 
had  a  stoop  of  the  shoulder  and  a  characteristic  swaying,  irregular  gait. 
A  broad  cloak  hung  at  an  angle  on  one  side,  and  he  would  dart  sudden 
downward  glances  to  the  right  or  left.  He  was  of  mercurial  spirits,  and 
in  the  social  circle  and  at  the  home  fireside  often  full  of  vivacity,  affec- 
tionate gayety,  and  banter.  In  his  best  moods  it  would  be  hard  to  find 
his  equal  as  a  raconteur}  He  was  however  subject  to  fits  of  silence  and 
depression.  Few  men  were  ever  more  deeply  reverenced  or  widely 
loved.  His  life  was  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  For  an  hour  at  twilight 
every  evening,  he  suffered  no  interruption  of  his  privacy,  and  was  be- 
lieved to  be  then  engaged  in  devotional  or  serious  meditations.  His 
face  came  to  show  unmistakable  traces  of  a  mellowed  Christian  expe- 
rience. His  very  appearance  was  that  of  a  holy  as  well  as  aged  and 
benevolent  man.  His  colleague,  Dr.  Miller,  preceded  him  to  the  other 
world ;  and  Dr.  Alexander,  with  all  the  solemnity  of  the  eternal  state  in 
his  manner,  preached  the  funeral  sermon  on  the  occasion  of  his  interment. 
He  announced  his  own  departure  as  near  at  hand,  and  made  his  prepara- 
tions for  the  great  journey  as  calmly  and  methodically  as  if  he  had 
been  going  back  to  Rockbridge,  among  his  native  mountains  in  old  Vir- 
ginia. It  was  a  blessed  sojourn  in  the  land  of  Beulah.  His  influence 
was  by  this  time  second  to  that  of  no  man  in  the  church.  The  cloud  of 
his  distinguished  and  undistinguished  pupils  rose  up  to  praise  him  in  at 
the  gate.  The  hour  of  his  euthanasia  was  not  long  postjjoned.  After 
the  most  impressive  and  gratifying  testimonies  of  his  composure  and  as- 
surance, he  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  and  was  buried  by  the  Synod  of 
New  Jersey,  then  in  session  in  Princeton,  on  Friday,  the  24th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1851,  in  the  eightieth  year  of  his  age.  And  the  whole  church 
joined  in  the  cry,  "  The  chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof."^  — 
H.  C.  A. 

1  Dr.  Alexander  left  behind  hira,  besides  his  devoted  widow,  who  did  not  long  survive 
him,  six  sons  and  a  daugliter:  James  Waddel,  William  Cowper,  Joseph  Addison,  Archi- 
bald, Samuel  Davies,  Janetta,  and  Henry  Martyn.  Of  these,  three  are  now  gone,  who 
once  added  to  the  indescribable  charm  of  the  circle  at  Princeton.  James  was  the  accom- 
plished professor,  in  both  the  college  and  the  seminarj',  where  he  succeeded  Dr.  Miller, 
and  the  gifted  and  beloved  pastor  of  the  Duane  Street  and  the  Fifth  Avenue  and  Nine- 
teenth Street  churches.  He  was  also  a  distinguished  author.  William  was  an  able  law- 
yer and  legislator,  and  then  the  first  president  of  a  large  insurance  company.  Addison 
was  the  well-known  professor  in  the  seminary  and  commentator  on  Isaiah,  Acts,  Matthew, 
and  Mark.  He  was  a  rare  linguist  and  brilliant  genius.  As  a  preacher  he  at  times  ex- 
celled most  of  his  contemporaries.  The  two  last  named  had  a  vein  of  original  humor,  and 
both  were  endowed  with  powers  of  memorj'  that  were  almost  unexampled.  Dr.  Alexander 
never  appeared  to  better  advantage  than  when  chatting  with  his  wife  and  children. 

2  See  the  charming  narrative  of  his  conversation  in  his  last  hours  with  the  pastor  of  the 
church  of  his  family,  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  E.  Schenck.     (Sprague's  Annals,  vol.  iv.) 


760  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Pekiod  V. 

LIFE  XXVII.     CHARLES   HODGE. 

A.  D.  1797-A.    D.    1878.      PRESBYTERIAN,  —  AMERICA. 

The  jjaternal  grandfather  of  Charles  Hodge,  with  his  two  brothers, 
emigrated  from  the  north  of  Ireland  in  1735,  and  settled  in  Philadel- 
phia. They  were  by  education  Presbyterians,  and  by  grace  pious  men, 
and  gladly  cooperated  in  the  great  revival  which  soon  after  visited  the 
city  of  their  adoption  under  the  preaching  of  Whitefield.  They  were 
among  the  founders  and  first  office-bearers  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church,  founded  in  1740,  whose  first  pastor  was  the  apostolical  Gilbert 
Tennant.  Charles  Hodge's  father  was  a  godly  physician,  whose  health 
was  broken  by  the  exposures  incident  to  his  disinterested  labors  through- 
out the  yellow  fever  epidemics  occurring  from  1793  to  1795.  His  mother, 
a  descendant  of  French  Huguenots,  was  born  and  educated  among  the 
orthodox  Congregatioualists  of  Boston.  He  thus  writes  of  his  own  earli- 
est life  :  "  When  my  father  died  in  1798,  he  left  a  widow,  little  more  than 
thirty  years  of  age,  and  two  children,  Hugh  Lenox,  aged  two  years,  and 
Charles,  aged  six  months.  It  is  no  marvel  that  mothers  are  sacred  in  the 
eyes  of  their  children.     The  debt  they  owe  them  is  beyond 

His  mother.  *'  ^  j 

all  estimate.  To  our  mother,  my  brother  and  myself,  under 
God,  owe  absolutely  everything.  To  us  she  devoted  her  life.  For  us 
she  prayed,  labored,  and  suffered. 

"  Our  early  training  was  religious.  Our  mother  was  a  Christian.  She 
took  us  regularly  to  church,  and  carefully  drilled  us  in  the  Westminster 
Catechism,  which  we  recited  on  stated  occasions  to  Dr.  Ashbel  Green, 
our  pastor.  I  think  that  in  my  childhood  I  came  nearer  to  the  apostolic 
injunction,  '  Pray  without  ceasing,'  than  in  any  other  period  of  my  life. 
As  far  back  as  I  can  remember  I  had  the  habit  of  thanking  God  for 
everything  I  received,  and  asking  Him  for  everything  I  wanted.  If  I 
lost  a  book  or  any  of  my  playthings,  I  prayed  that  I  might  find  it.  I 
prayed  walking  along  the  streets,  in  school  and  out  of  school,  whether 
playing  or  studying.  I  did  not  do  this  in  obedience  to  any  prescribed 
rule.  It  seemed  natural.  I  thought  of  God  as  an  everywhere  present 
Being,  full  of  kindness  and  love,  who  would  not  be  offended  if  children 
talked  to  Him.  I  knew  He  cared  for  sparrows.  I  was  as  cheerful  and 
happy  as  the  birds,  and  acted  as  they  did." 

He  received  his  classical  education  in  Somerville,  and  at  the  academy 
in  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  and  entered  the  college  in  th«  latter  place  in 
the  fall  of  1812,  just  after  the  inauguration  of  his  old  pastor.  Dr.  Ashbel 
Green,  as  president  of  the  college,  and  of  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander  as 
the  first  professor  of  the  new  theological  seminary  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  CHARLES  HODGE.  761 

His  religious  experience  having  gradually  ripened,  he,  with  his  friend 
Kinsey  Van  Dyke,  made  a  profession  of  faith  in  the  Presbyterian  church 
in  Princeton,  January  13,  1815,  in  the  middle  of  their  Senior  year.  The 
afternoon  of  the  Saturday  jjreceding  there  was  a  sergeant  with  a  drum- 
mer in  the  town  enlisting  recruits  for  the  then  pending  war  with  Great 
Britain.  One  student  abruptly  hailed  another  with  the  announcement 
that  "  Hodge   had  enlisted."     "  Is  it  possible  !  "   was  the 

^r         1       1  1.        n  -■  ,        ,  ,.    -r-.  lie  enlists. 

response.  "  Yes,  he  has  enlisted  under  the  banner  of  Kmg 
Jesus."  This  stand,  as  Dr.  Green  judged,  cooperating  with  other  provi- 
dential events,  was  influential  in  bringing  to  a  crisis  the  great  revival  in 
the  college  which  immediately  ensued.  One  half  of  the  previously  un- 
converted students  were  brought  to  a  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  among 
these  several  who  were  eminent  in  the  Christian  ministry,  and  life-long 
intimate  friends  of  Charles  Hodge :  as  John  Johns,  bishop  of  Virginia, 
Charles  P.  Mcllvaine,  bishop  of  Ohio,  W.  J.  Armstrong,  secretary  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  William  James, 
Charles  Stewart,  etc. 

Mr.  Hodge  entered  the  theological  seminary  under  the  instruction  of 
those  eminent  servants  of  God,  Drs.  A.  Alexander  and  Samuel  Miller, 
in  the  fall  of  1816.  At  the  close  of  his  course  in  1819  he  was  selected 
by  Dr.  Alexander  to  be  his  assistant  in  teaching  the  original  languages 
of  Scripture.  After  having  spent  t|,ie  winter  of  1819-1820  in  Pliiladel- 
phia,  preparing  for  his  work  under  the  instruction  of  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Banks,  D.  D.,  of  the  Associate  Presbyterian  Church,  and  having  been 
licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Ploiladelphia,  he  commenced  his  work  in 
the  seminaiy  in  midsummer,  1820.  In  1822,  having  been  ordained  by 
the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  he  was  elected  by  the  general  as- 
sembly professor  of  Oriental  and  Biblical  literature  in  their  seminary  at 
Princeton. 

In  this  department  he  labored  with  great  diligence,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  considerable  learning  in  the  various  special  branches  connected 
with  it.  But  conscious  of  his  need  of  greater  advantages  of  instruction 
than  were  at  that  time  afforded  in  America,  with  the  permission  of  the 
board  of  directors,  he  left  his  family  and  his  work  in  the  seminary,  and 
spent  two  years  in  special  studies  in  Paris,  Halle,  and  Berlin,  gju^iies  in  eu- 
from  the  fall  of  1826  to  that  of  1828.  He  attended  the  '"p*^- 
lectures,  among  others,  of  De  Sacy  in  Paris,  of  Gesenius  and  Tholuck 
in  Halle,  and  of  Hengstenberg,  Neander,  and  Humboldt  in  Berlin.  By  a 
blessed  providence  he  was  thrown,  in  Halle,  and  yet  more  in  Berlin,  into 
a  circle  of  most  gracious  and  loving  young  Christians  about  his  own  age, 
as  Tholuck,  Otto  and  Ludwig  von  Gerlach,  and  others.  Among  these 
congenial  spirits  he  was  permitted  to  give  as  well  as  receive  liglit  and 
comfort.  The  intimacy  and  endearing  tenderness  of  these  Christian 
friendships  is  proved  and  illustrated  by  the  letters  he  continued  to  receive 
for  many  years. 


762  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

On  his  return  to  America,  in  the  autumn  of  1828,  Mr.  Hodge  conse- 
crated himself  with  renewed  enthusiasm  to  his  work  as  professor  of  Ori- 
ental and  Biblical  literature.  He  prepared  extensive  courses  of  lectures 
on  Biblical  criticism,  hermeneutics,  special  introduction,  sacred  geog- 
raphy, etc.  He  delivered  to  the  Junior  class  exegetical  lectures  on 
Paul's  Epistles,  an  exercise  which  he  continued  twice  a  week  without 
interruption  for  fifty  years,  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

In  1825  he  had  commenced  editing  a  quarterly  publication,  entitled 
the  "Biblical  Repertory,"  desired  to  furnish  translations 

Founds  the  ^  .  n     ^       ^       /         .  j.        • 

"  Princeton  Ke-  and  repmits  of  the  best  contemporary  foreign  essays  upon 
theological  and  religious  subjects.  On  his  return  from 
Europe  he  enlarged  the  scheme  by  making  it  the  vehicle  for  original  con- 
tributions to  the  same  class  of  literature,  adding  to  the  former  title  that 
of  "  Princeton  Review."  He  continued  to  be  the  editor  and  principal 
contributor  of  this  review  until  1868,  having,  as  far  as  can  be  now  as- 
certained, contributed  one  hundred  and  thirty  articles,  many  of  which 
gave  to  the  review  the  larger  share  of  its  reputation  and  influence  among 
the  churches  of  America  and  Europe.  The  most  important  of  these 
have  been  republished  in  Great  Britain,  and  have  been  gathered  into 
volumes  and  published  in  this  country  under  the  titles  "  Hodge's  Essays," 
"  Princeton  Essays,"  and  "  Hodge's  Church  Polity." 

These  articles  cover  the  whole  field  of  theology  and  ecclesiology,  and 
of  the  great  practical,  ecclesiastical,  and  moral  questions  of  the  day. 
From  1835  to  1868  he  wrote  every  year  a  review  of  the  action  of  the 
general  assembly,  which  series  all  parties  acknowledge  have  exerted  a 
very  powerful  influence  upon  the  current  opinion  and  history  of  the 
church. 

A  writer  on  the  "American  Press"  in  the  "British  Quarterly  Review" 
for  January,  1871,  says  of  the  "  Princeton  Review:  "  "  It  is,  beyond  all 
question,  the  greatest  purely  theological  review  that  has  ever  been  pub- 
lished in  the  English  tongue,  and  has  waged  war  in  defense  of  the  West- 
minster standards  for  a  period  of  forty  years,  with  a  polemic  vigor  and 
unity  of  design  without  any  parallel  in  the  history  of  religious  journalism. 
If  we  were  called  to  name  any  living  writer,  who  to  Calvin's  exegetical 
tact  unites  a  large  measure  of  Calvin's  grasp  of  mind  and  transparent 
clearness  in  the  department  of  systematic  theology,  we  should  point  to 
this  Princeton  professor." 

Professor  James  McGregor,  in  the  "  British  and  Foreign  Evangelical 
Review  "  for  July,  1874,  says:  "  Greatness  of  nature  has  been  exhibited 
in  remarkable  measure  from  first  to  last  by  the  Princeton  school  in  gen- 
eral, and  by  Dr.  Ilodge  in  particular.  They  have  in  their  controversies 
been  earnest,  eloquent,  warm,  even  passionate,  but  they  have  invariably 
spoken  as  true  Christian  gentlemen,  who  in  relation  to  adversaries  make 
due  allowance  for  human  infirmities.  They  have  shown  themselves  to  be 
manly  men  of  the  heroic  type." 


Cent.  XVII-XIX.]  CHARLES  HODGE.  763 

Dr.  Charles  P.  Krauth,  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  said  at  Dr.  Hodge's 
semi-centennial  commemoration,  April,  1872,  that  he  (Dr.  Hodge)  had 
always  treated  of  the  doctrines  of  churches  differing  from  his  own,  "  with 
candor,  love  of  truth,  and  perfect  fairness." 

As  a  controversialist,  for  forty-five  years.  Dr.  Hodge  was  characterized 
by  preeminent  self-consistency,  persistence  of  convictions,  ^^  ^  controTer- 
and  a  uniformly  consistent  expression  of  them ;  by  great  siaiist. 
clearness  of  style  and  thoroughly  logical  arrangement  of  material,  and 
consequent  development  of  the  principles  adopted  ;  by  absolute  fidelity  to 
truth  as  he  conceived  it,  and  devotion  to  its  maintenance,  for  the  glory 
of  Christ  and  the  good  of  souls,  without  a  shadow  of  a  thought  as  to  the 
approbation  or  the  offense  of  men. 

As  a  preacher  he  was  instructive  and  edifying,  but  not  popular.  His 
sermons  were  elaborate  expositions  of  some  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
gospel,  often  exhibited  on  the  side  of  experience  and  practice.  He  read 
them  quietly,  without  gesture,  but  with  great  solemnity  and  tenderness  of 
tone  and  manner.  •  .  ■ 

As  a  man  in  all  the  manifestations  of  his  inward  life  in  his  family,  and 
with  his  intimate  friends,  he  was  a  Christian  of  the  type  of  John.  He 
was  reverent,  tender,  joyous,  full  of  faith  and  hope  and  love.  He  spon- 
taneously cast  off  whatever  tended  to  depress  him,  and  always  looked  on 
the  bright  side  of  things.  When  he  looked  Godward  his  attitude  was 
adoring  love ;  when  he  looked  manward  his  face  radiated  benevolence. 
He  was  a  life-long  controversialist,  because  he  believed  that  the  truth  as 
he  held  it  was  essential  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  men. 
Yet  he  was  devoid  of  all  personal  animosities,  and  he  truly  loved  all, 
except  in  the  few  cases  in  which  it  appeared  to  him  beyond  doubt  that 
the  persons  not  loved  were  judicially  given  ujd  to  be  identified  with  the 
lies  they  taught. 

As  a  teacher  he  had  great  power,  which  resulted  in  part  from  his 
character,  and  the  reverence  that  excited,  partly  from  the 

.  As  a  teacher. 

fullness  of  his  knowledge  and  the  clearness  of  his  statements, 
and  partly  from  his  method.  He  possessed  an  almost  perfect  skill  in 
practicing  the  Socratic  method,  in  eliciting  thought,  and  leading  to  con- 
clusions by  questions.  He  stimulated  thought,  and  taught  his  students 
how  to  use  their  faculties,  and  brought  them  to  fixed  convictions  through 
personal  experience  of  the  truth,  and  its  relation  to  the  conscience  and 
the  life. 

In  all  these  relations  and  functions  his  distinguishing  attributes  were 
great  tenderness  and  strength  of  emotion,  and  power  of  exciting  it  in 
others  ;  an  habitual  adoring  love  for  Christ,  and  absolute  submission  of 
mind  and  will  to  his  word ;  a  chivalrous  disijosition  to  maintain  against 
all  odds,  and  with  unvarying  consistency  through  all  the  years  of  a  long 
life,  the  truth  as  he  knew  it ;   crystalline  clearness  of  thought  and  ex- 


764  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

pression ;  and  an  unsurpassed  logical  power  of  analysis,  and  of  grasping 
and  exhibiting  all  truths  in  their  relations.  As  he  sat  every  Sabbath 
afternoon  in  the  conference  of  students  and  professors,  he  spoke  on  all 
questions  of  experimental  and  practical  religion,  freely,  -without  paper, 
in  language  and  with  illustration  suggested  by  the  moment.  The  mat- 
ter presented  was  a  clear  analysis  of  the  Scriptural  passage  or  theme, 
doctrinal  or  practical,  chosen  for  the  occasion ;  an  exhaustive  statement 
and  clear  illustration  of  the  subject ;  a  development  of  each  doctrine  on 
the  side  of  experience  and  duty,  and  a  "demonstration  of  the  practical 
character  of  all  doctrine,  and  of  the  doctrinal  basis  of  all  genuine  relig- 
ious experience  and  practice.  As  to  the  manner,  the  entire  discourse  was 
in  the  highest  degree  earnest,  fervent,  and  tender  to  tears ;  full  of  con- 
viction and  full  of  love. 

In  1835  he  published  his   "  Commentary  on  the  Ejjistle  to  the  Eo- 
mans;"  in  1839  and  1840  his  "Constitutional  History  of 

His  books.  1        -I-.        T  •  /~\^  1      •        1       TT    •       T   o  I,     •         "-11 

the  1  resbyterian  Church  m  the  United  States  ;  m  1841, 
the  "  Way  of  Life,"  intended  to  instruct  inquirers  and  young  Christians  as 
to  the  true  nature  of  Christian  doctrine  on  its  practical  and  experimental 
side.  It  has  been  republished  in  England  and  translated  into  other  lan- 
guages, and  thirty-five  thousand  copies  have  been  circulated  in  America. 
Christians  of  all  denominations  have  acknowledged  their  indebtedness  to 
it.  Dr.  Hodge  published  his  "Commentary  on  Ei^hesians "  in  1856, 
that  on  First  Corinthians  in  1857,  and  that  on  Second  Corinthians  in 
1859.  His  great  life-work,  "  Systematic  Theology,"  in  three  large  oc- 
tavo volumes,  aggregating  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty  pages, 
was  published  between  1871  and  1873.  These  have  had  a  large  circu- 
lation in  America  and  Great  Britain,  and  are  text-books,  or  books  of 
primary  reference,  in  many  theological  seminaries.  In  1874  he  pub- 
lished a  small  book  entitled,  "  What  is  Darwiuianism  ?  "  in  opposition  to 
the  prevailing  atheistic  theory  of  evolution. 

He  was  made  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  Rutgers  College,  New  Jersey,  in 
1834,  and  LL.  D.  by  Washington  College,  Pennsylvania,  in  1864,  and 
moderator  of  the  general  assembly  in  1846. 

From  1830  to  1840  he  was  afilicted  with  an  obscure  affection  of  the 
nerves  of  the  right  thigh.  It  was  the  cause  of  great  pain  immediately 
from  the  nature  of  the  affliction  itself,  and  mediately  from  the  remedies 
resorted  to  by  his  physicians.  He  was  for  several  years  confined  to  a 
horizontal  position,  part  of  that  time  with  his  limb  in  an  iron  splint.  He 
was  lanced,  and  burned  with  the  actual  cautery,  and  treated  with  electric 
and  cold  baths.  For  some  years  his  classes  gathered  round  his  couch  in 
his  own  room.  Afterwards  he  went  to  meet  them,  first  on  crutches,  and 
then  leaning  on  a  cane.  He  used  one  reclining  chair,  occupying  a  fixed 
spot  in  his  study  for  more  than  forty-five  years,  and  his  writing  was  done 
until  comparatively  recent  days  on  a  board  supported  by  his  left  arm 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  CHARLES  HODGE.  765 

and  hand,  while  he  was  extended  in  an  almost  reclining  position  on  his 
chair. 

This  affliction  was  acquiesced  in  by  him  with  the  utmost  cheerfulness, 
and  doubtless  contributed  much  to  deepen  and  sweeten  his  religious  ex- 
perience. It  was  by  such  means  that  his  faith  strengthened  and  became 
in  appearance  as  vivid  and  as  certain  as  sight,  and  that  his  sanctified 
affections  went  out  in  an  ever-increasing  flame  of  adoring  love  toward 
his  Lord,  and  of  holy  brotherly  kindness  toward  all  Christians. 

In  1840  Dr.  Hodge  was  transferred  to  the  chair  of  didactic  theology, 
hitherto  occupied  by  his  venerated  preceptor,  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander. 
His  special  adaptation  to  this  new  chair  had  been  strikingly  demonstrated 
by  his  articles  in  the  "Princeton  Review"  on  doctrinal  subjects,  and  by 
his  "  Commentary  on  Romans."  His  singular  power  in  analysis,  logical 
exposition,  and  effective  polemics  had  become  universally  recognized. 
But  it  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  many  favoring  providences 
which  distinguished  his  life,  that  he  was  at  first  constrained  to  turn  his 
attention  against  the  natural  bent  of  his  tastes  and  talents  to  the  study 
of  the  original  languages  of  Scripture,  and  to  the  practice  of  extended 
exegesis.  It  was  doubtless  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  for  twenty  years 
he  was  thus  professionally  engaged  with  purely  exegetical  studies  that 
his  subsequent  theological  writings  were  so  predominately  Scriptural  in 
their  form  and  spirit.  The  result  has  been  that  while  his  commentaries 
and  exegetical  lectures  have  been,  to  a  marked  degree,  dominated  by  the- 
ological ideas,  it  is  true  even  to  a  greater  extent  that  all  his  theological 
statements  and  arguments  are  controlled  by  and  suffused  with  the  in- 
spired Word. 

From  the  date  of  his  employment  as  assistant  teacher  of  Oriental  and 
Biblical  literature  in  1820  to  his  death  in  1878,  over  three   ^     ^     ^ 

Teaches  three 

thousand  candidates  for  the  ministry  of  the  various  evangel-   thousand  cier- 

ffviueii. 

ical  churches  had  passed  under  his  instruction.  The  influ- 
ence of  such  a  man,  exerted  through  so  many  channels  for  so  long  a  time, 
must  have  been  immense.  It  was,  however,  directly  exerted  through  the 
class-room  and  through  the  press,  especially  through  his  numerous  articles 
upon  all  the  great  matters  of  current  ecclesiastical  interest  which  ap- 
peared in  the  "  Princeton  Review  ; "  and  the  ministry,  through  which 
class  he  reached  his  entire  generation  throughout  the  Christian  world. 

On  the  23d  of  April,  1872,  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  election  as 
professor,  there  was  observed  in  Princeton  a  semi-centennial  commem- 
oration or  jubilee.  Four  hundred  of  his  former  students  enrolled  them- 
selves as  having  come  up  from  every  part  of  the  land  to  pay  their  respects 
to  their  aged  professor.  The  faculties  of  all  the  Presbyterian  theolog- 
ical seminaries,  and  several  of  those  "belonging  to  the  Episcopal,  Meth- 
odist, Congregational,  Lutheran,  and  Reformed  churches,  were  repre- 
sented.    All  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  churches   of    Great   Britain 


766  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

and  Ireland  saluted  him  by  letter  or  representative  with  expressions  of 
their  respect,  confidence,  and  love.  Episcopal  bishops,  venerable  profess- 
ors, and  pastors  of  all  communions  sent  him  congratulatory  addresses. 
Dr.  Joseph  T.  Duryea,  of  Brooklyn,  delivered  an  oration  on  "  Theology 
as  a  Science."  Dr.  H.  A.  Boardman,  of  Philadelphia,  delivered  to  Dr. 
Hodge,  in  the  name  of  the  directors  and  alumni  of  the  institution,  a  con- 
gratulatory address. 

"  That  you  should  live  to  see  this  mighty  mechanism  in  motion,  to 
guide  into  so  many  of  its  countless  channels  this  broad  stream  from  the 
Fountain  of  living  waters,  is  a  distinction  so  rare  and  so  exalted  that  we 
cannot  but  look  upon  you  as  a  man  greatly  beloved  of  God,  and  honored 

as  He  has  scarcely  honored  any  other  individual  of  our  age We 

render  the  praise  to  Him  whose  providence  and  grace  have  made  you 

what  you  are,  and  given   you  to  us  and  to  his  church Again, 

with  one  heart,  and  voice  do  we  the  directors  and  alumni  of  the  semi- 
nary, the  faculties  and  graduates  of  sister  institutions,  the  represent- 
atives of  the  other  liberal  professions,  and  your  friends  of  every  name 
and  calling  here  assembled,  congratulate  you  on  this  auspicious  anniver- 
sary, and  pay  you  the  tribute  of  our  grateful  love." 

In  his  reply,  while  defining  the  life-long  principles  of  his  senior  col- 
leagues, and  of  himself,  he  said :  "  When  I  was  about  leaving  Berlin  on 
my  return  to  America,  the  friends  whom  God  had  given  me  in  that  city 
were  kind  enough  to  send  me  an  album,  in  which  they  had  severally 
written  their  names,  and  a  few  lines  as  remarks.  Wliat  Neander  wrote 
„.       ,,  ,         was  in   Greek,  and  included  these  words :   OvSiu  Iv  iavTw, 

His  motto  tor  '  "■ 

Priuceton.  nothing  in  ourself;  iv  Kvpiw  navTa,  all  things  in  the  Lord; 

<S  fxovta  SovXeveiv  Sofe'a  Kai  Kavxwa,  whom  alone  to  serve  is  a  glory  and  a 
joy.  These  words  our  old  professors  would  have  inscribed  in  letters  of 
gold  over  the  portals  of  this  seminary,  there  to  remain  in  undiminished 
brightness  as  long  as  the  name  of  Princeton  lingers  in  the  memory  of 
man." 

The  singular  perfection  of  such  a  life-work  is  due  to  the  remarkable 
combination  of  a  variety  of  elements  :  natural  endowments  of  intellect 
and  conscience  and  affections,  divine  grace,  great  diligence  and  supreme 
moral  courage,  felicitous  circumstances,  eminent  position,  and  length  of 
days. 

He  died  June  19,  1878,  in  his  eighty-first  year;  his  nervous  system 
exhausted,  his  physical  life  ran  gently  out,  while  his  mind  was  as  clear 
and  his  spirit  as  free  and  strong  as  ever.  He  died  with  all  his  family 
around  him,  as  the  setting  sun  glorifying  the  lower  heavens,  with  the 
peaceful  brightness  of  his  faith  and  love.  To  a  weeping  daughter  he 
said,  "  Dearest,  don't  weep.  To  be  absent  from  the  body  is  to  be  with 
the  Lord.  To  be  with  the  Lord  is  to  see  Him.  To  see  the  Lord  is  to 
belikeHim."  — A.  A.  H. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  ALBERT  BARNES.  767 

LIFE  XXVIII.     ALBERT  BARNES. 

A.    D,    1798-A.    D.    1870.      PRESBYTERIAN, AMERICA. 

Albert  Barnes  was  born  at  Rome,  New  York,  December  1,  1798. 
He  died  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  Decem- 
ber 24,  1870.  These  two  dates  mark  the  earthly  limits  of 
an  eminently  nsefid  and  godly  life.  The  life  was  begun  in  skepticism. 
It  grew  toward  golden  completeness  under  a  profound  conviction  of  the 
truth  as  revealed  in  the  Word  of  God.  It  ended  in  full,  unshaken  faith. 
Its  early  years  were  uneventful.  Its  young  and  vigorous  manhood  was 
given  to  Christ.  Its  maturity  marked  a  period  of  rare  interest  in  the 
history  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States,  linked  itself  in- 
dissolubly  with  that  history,  gave  to  the  church  one  of  the  truest  and 
purest  of  her  living  epistles,  and  gave  to  the  world  "  The  People's  Com- 
mentator." Its  eventide  was  a  beautiful  sunset;  the  Christ-like  spirit 
seemed  bathed  in  the  glory  streaming  through  the  oj^en  gates  of  the  city 
of  God,  as  if  he  stood  just  this  side  the  river,  looking  into  the  other 
country,  "  beholding  the  King  in  his  beauty,"  and  "  seeing  Him  as  He 
is." 

Doubtless  the  early  skepticism  of  Albert  Barnes  gave  him,  ever  after- 
wards, that  characteristic  of  clearness  in  perceiving,  and  of  fairness  in 
stating,  the  difficulties  and  objections  of  the  disbeliever,  which  in  so 
marked  a  manner  appears  in  his  published  works.  He  was  accustomed 
to  say  that  doubts  and  difficulties  born  of  his  own  questioning  and  skep- 
tical heart  had  seemed  to  him  to  be  of  far  greater  force  and  magnitude 
than  any  he  had  ever  seen  suggested  by  rationalism  and  infidelity.  An 
article  in  the  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  entitled  "  Chris- 
tianity," first  commanded  his  assent  to  the  truth  and  divine  origin  of  the 
Christian  religion.  But  he  resolved  to  yield  to  its  claims  no  further  than 
thenceforward  to  keep  alOof  from  its  active  opposers,  and  to  lead  a 
strictly  moral  life.     One  year  later,  in  Hamilton   College, 

_,-,  ^-.         _-.     ,      ,  .  His  conversion. 

at  Clmton,  New  York,  he  experienced  the  deeper  change 
that  set  in  entirely  new  channels  the  currents  of  his  life.  He  became  a 
Christian,  gave  up  his  fondly  cherished  plan  of  preparation  for  the  legal 
profession,  consecrated  himself  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and,  upon 
graduating  at  Hamilton  College  in  1820,  pursued  a  four  years'  course  of 
theological  study  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  and  was  ordained  and  in 
stalled  as  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  at  Morristown,  New  Jer- 
sey. After  nearly  five  years  in  this  pastorate,  he  was  called  to  tho 
charge  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia,  with  which 
church  he  retained  official  connection  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

Upon  the  ministry  of  this  man  of  God  was  set  early  and  abundant 


768  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Pkriod  Y. 

seal.  A  revival  of  remarkable  extent  and  power  occurred  during  his 
ministry  at  Morristown.  The  windows  of  heaven  were  opened  over  that 
place,  and  all  the  region  round  about  was  refreshed  with  the  copious 
shower.  His  pulpit  and  pastoral  ministrations  were  also  greatly  blessed 
of  God  in  Philadelphia,  and  frequent  revivals  marked  the  history  of  that 
long  pastorate.  These  seasons  of  special  interest  were  never  superficial 
excitements.  While  always  marked  by  deep  feeling,  it  was  rational  emo- 
tion, born  of  profound  conviction  by  the  truth.  For  throughout  his 
entire  ministry,  this  Scriptural  preacher  held  firmly  to  the  persuasion, 
publicly  avowed  and  acted  uj)on  in  his  first  charge,  "  that  injury  is  not 
done  in  a  revival  by  a  full  exliibition  of  God's  plan  of  saving  men,  ac- 
cording to  his  sovereign  will  and  pleasure."  The  pulpit  ministrations 
of  Mr.  Barnes  were  characterized  by  Scripturalness,  clearness,  fullness  of 
treatment,  faii'ness  in  dealing  with  objections,  and  thoughtful  spiritual 
power. 

There  were  four  great  movements  that  either  originated  or  were 
brought  to  prominent  public  notice  about  the  time  of  Albert  Barnes's 
opening  ministry.  Upon  each  of  these  he  left  a  powerful  imjjress.  The 
history  of  two  of  them  cannot  be  written  without  conspicuous  reference 
to  his  influence. 

Of  these  four  great  movements,  the  temperance  reformation  was  one. 
The  temperance  Promptly  and  decisively  Mr.  Barnes  sprang  to  the  advo- 
reformation.  ^acy  of  its  great  leading  principle,  entire  abstinence  from 
all  intoxicating  beverages.  There  were  nineteen  distilleries  within  the 
limits  of  his  first  parish  when  he  began  to  preach.  Liquor  was  exten- 
sively manufactured  and  sold  in  the  region  of  country  about  Morristown. 
Drinking  customs  widely  prevailed.  What  Mr.  Barnes  understood  to  be 
the  truth  of  God  on  this  subject,  he  fearlessly  preached,  and  with  such 
bold  fidelity  and  persuasiveness  as  to  effect  a  complete  revolution  in 
some  of  the  most  cherished  and  most  fortifying  habits  of  social  life ; 
while  in  nearly  every  one  of  the  distilleries  within  his  influence  the  fires 
were  put  out,  to  be  rekindled  no  more. 

To  the  principles  thus  early  avowed,  he  adhered  unswervingly,  giving 
them  public  advocacy  on  all  suitable  occasions  till  he  died. 

Another  of  the  great  movements  that  came  to  conspicuity  in  the  first 
The  antisiavery  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^^  2^^'^^^"*^  ccutury,  and  wliicli  at  last  culminated  in 
movement.  gjyj^  war  and  emancipation,  was  the  antisiavery  movement. 

Mr.  Barnes's  first  critical  study  of  the  New  Testament,  there  in  the  quiet 
of  his  home  at  Morristown,  led  him  to  feel  and  to  say  that  the  gospel 
was  an  epistle  of  deliverance  to  the  captives ;  that  to  give  liberty  to  the 
slave  and  restore  him  to  freedom  was  to  confer  the  highest  benefit  and 
impart  the  richest  favor  ;  and  that  by  the  freedom  of  the  truth  all  prison 
doors  would  finally  be  opened  and  all  chains  of  slavery  broken.  From 
that  time  onward  he  never  hesitated,  from  the  pulpit  and  by  the  press, 


Cent.  XVIT.-XIX.]  ALBERT  BARNES.  769 

in  the  clearest  and  most  unmistakable  terms  to  express  his  convictions 
on  the  evils,  the  (3rimes,  the  wrongs  of  slavery.  He  was  no  enthusiast 
or  fanatic  in  this  matter.  He  was  not  in  anything.  Behind  his  boldest 
and  freest  and  most  radical  utterances  there  was  no  passionate  excess  of 
feeling,  —  only  the  calm,  sober  conviction  of  a  trixth-loving,  earnest,  con- 
scientious man  of  God ;  and  to  give  that  conviction  embodiment  in 
speech  on  fit  occasion,  at  whatever  risk  and  at  whatever  cost,  was  as 
much  a  matter  of  course,  with  him,  as  to  eat  his  daily  bread.  He  never 
uttered  a  word  in  public  or  in  private  in  favor  of  any  illegal  interfer- 
ence with  the  institution  where  it  existed.  What  he  did  and  all  that  he 
did,  beyond  endeavoring  to  secure  a  constitutional  change  of  the  laws, 
was  done  as  a  preacher  and  a  commentator,  by  a  candid  and  thoughtful 
exposition  of  the  Word  of  God  in  its  application  to  the  duties  and  the 
rights  of  man.  In  his  pulpit  and  in  his  notes,  he  never  sought  pojiular- 
ity  by  silence.  Turn  to  any  page  of  his  commentary,  where  there  is  a 
passage  regarded  as  bearing  ujiou  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  there  it 
will  be  seen  that  he  ever  consistently  entered  a  calm  but  vigorous  Chris- 
tian protest  against  this  at  that  time  strongly  buttressed  and  gospel  de- 
fended, but  in  his  judgment  most  abominable,  institutional  iniquity. 

He  lived  to  see  America  without  a  slave,  and  he  entered  heartily  into 
the  work  of  educating  and  elevating  the  long-enthralled  race. 

A  third  great  movement,  assuming  importance  in  the  early  years  of 
Mr.  Barnes's  ministry,  was  the  Sabbath-school.  His  dis-  ,j^^  sabbath- 
cerning  mind  saw  that  an  emergency  had  arisen  in  the  es-  school. 
tablishment  and  rapid  spread  of  this  new  institution.  He  was  struck 
with  the  need  of  a  plain  and  simple  commentary  on  the  gospels,  which 
could  be  put  into  the  hands  of  teachers,  furnishing  them  an  easy  ex- 
planation of  the  sacred  text.  He  at  once,  while  still  at  Morristown, 
entered  upon  those  Scripture  studies,  the  fruits  of  which  j,jj,g(.  conimg^. 
were  subsequently  given  in  "  Notes  Explanatory  and  Prac-  *'^'"y- 
tical  on  the  Gospels,  designed  for  Sunday-School  Teachers  and  Bible 
Classes."  This  first  venture  bore  date,  Philadelphia,  August  25,  1832. 
It  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  no  single  book  has  gone  into  so  many 
hands  as  a  help  to  the  understanding  of  God's  Word  in  the  instruction 
of  the  Sabbath-school.  He  little  dreamed  then  that  the  purpose  thus 
formed,  and  upon  the  prosecution  of  which  he  thus  early  entered,  would 
make  his  name  a  household  word  wherever  the  English  tongue  is 
spoken.  He  had  no  thought,  in  the  unambitious  effort  to  give  simply 
the  results  of  the  critical  study  of  the  gospels,  and  by  avoiding  all  ab- 
struse and  scholastic  discussion  to  afford  a  useful  interpreter  to  the 
young  and  the  unlearned,  that  he  was  to  jjlace  himself  foremost  among 
Bible  commentators  in  the  number  of  his  readers,  and  to  go  around  the 
world  like  the  beautiful  feet  of  morning,  publishing  in  various  languages 
his  exposition  of  the  word  and  work  of  Christ.  He  gave  the  early 
49 


770  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

hours  of  morning  to  this  work  of  exposition.  Promptly  at  nine  o'clock 
every  day,  he  left  it  and  turned  to  his  more  direct  pulpit  and  pastoral 
duties.  By  the  preparation  of  these  first  notes,  the  steps  of  this  good 
man  were  established  in  that  quiet  path  where  he  "  prevented  the  dawn- 
ing of  the  morning "  in  communion  with  God  and  in  the  careful  and 
prayerful  study  of  his  holy  Word  for  well-nigh  forty  years. 

The  habit  of  spending  a  small  portion  of  each  day  in  annotating  the 
Scriptures  grew  to  be  a  pleasure  and  a  preference,  and  he  continued  it 
until  in  1834  appeared  his  "  Notes  Explanatory  and  Practical  on  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  and  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  One  book 
after  another  followed,  as  this  man  of  method  persevered  year  by  year 
in  his  study  of  the  Word,  until,  to  his  own  surprise,  he  found  himself  at 
the  end  of  the  New  Testament.  During  these  years  he  had  also  written 
his  annotations  successively  on  Isaiah,  Job,  and  Daniel.  Subsequently 
his  "Notes  on  the  Psalms  "  appeared.  Meanwhile  other  works  in  the  line 
of  his  ministerial  labors  were  given  to  the  press.  His  pen  was  never 
idle.  Among  his  more  important  published  works  are,  "  The  Way  of 
Salvation,"  "  The  Atonement,"  "  Lectures  on  the  Evidences,"  and  "  Life 
Circulation  of  ^^  ^^-  P'^iil-"  He  lived  to  see  edition  after  edition  of  his 
commentaries,  commentaries  exhausted,  until  more  than  half  a  million  of 
volumes  were  sold  in  his  own  country,  and  perhaps  even  a  greater  num- 
ber in  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  while  translations  of  many  of  his 
notes  were  made  into  the  languages  of  France,  Wales,  India,  and  China. 
This  remarkable  result  is  the  fullest  proof  that  the  life-labor  of  Mr. 
Barnes  met  a  wide  necessity.  The  man  needs  no  other  monument  com- 
memorative of  his  faithful  toil.  Without  any  original  design  on  his 
part,  when  no  eyes  were  turned  to  him  in  expectation  of  any  grand 
achievement,  an  overruling  Providence  selected  the  instrumentality, 
prompted  to  the  conception  of  the  early  task,  insjiired  a  love  for  its  en- 
larging way,  guided  the  steps  of  the  faithful  expositor,  and  led  to  the 
completion  of  a  work  which,  in  extent  and  fidelity  and  beneficent  influ- 
ence, is  one  rarely  allotted  to  man.  He  ended  his  exposition  of  the 
Book  of  God,  February,  1868,  with  these  memorable  words  :  "  I  cannot 
close  this  work  without  emotion.  I  cannot  lay  down  my  pen  at  the  end 
of  this  long  task,  without  feeling  that  with  me  the  work  of  life  is  nearly 
over.  Yet  I  could  close  it  at  no  better  place  than  in  finishing  the  ex- 
position of  this  book  ;  and  the  language  with  which  the  book  of  Psalms 
itself  closes  seems  to  be  eminently  appropriate  to  all  that  I  have  expe- 
rienced. All  that  is  past,  all  in  the  prospect  of  what  is  to  come,  calls 
for  a  long,  a  joyful,  a  triumphant  Hallelujah  !  " 

It  was  indeed  a  long  task,  and  the  Christian  world,  with  one  voice, 
says  it  was  well  done. 

His  commentaries  are  adapted  to  the  people.  They  meet,  as  they 
were  designed  to  meet,  the  common  mind.     They  are  charged  with  com- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  ALBERT  BARNES.  771 

mon  sense.  They  are  free  from  the  processes  of  critical  study,  yet  they 
furnish  ample  proof  of  it  in  its  results.  They  are  eminently  spmtual 
and  practical.  With  faithful  exposition  of  the  letter  of  the  Word  is 
woven  a  hai3py  discerning  of  the  mind  of  the  Spirit.  They  bear  abun- 
dant witness  to  that  true  communion  with  God  which,  their  author  testi- 
fied, if  he  ever  had  it  in  his  life,  was  closely  connected  with  those  calm 
and  quiet  morning  hours  when  his  mind  was  brought  into  close  contact 
with  the  truth  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  are  pervaded  by  those 
qualities,  and  they  possess  those  characteristics  which  made  them  the 
best  —  as  they  were  deservedly  the  most  widely  appreciated  and  most 
generally  used  —  Scriptural  expositions  in  any  language  for  the  ordinary 
reader. 

A  fourth  great  movement,  with  which  Mr.  Barnes's  whole  ministerial 
life  was  influentially  connected,  was  that  which  led  to  the  Theological 
division,  and  at  last  to  the  reunion,  of  the  Presbyterian  movement. 
Church.  It  looked  toward  such  an  adjustment  of  human  liberty  and 
divine  sovereignty  as  would  secure  for  personal  responsibility  a  profound 
emphasis,  while  still  exhibitive  of  man's  absolute  dependence  upon  God's 
sovereign  will  and  pleasure  for  salvation.  It  was  aggressive  and  yet 
conservative.  It  involved  a  change  in  the  methods  of  presenting  gospel 
truth,  and  a  change  in  traditional  terminology. 

Some  men  saw  in  it  a  grave  peril  to  sound  theology,  threatening  the 
integrity  of  the  entire  Calvinistic  system.  Others  viewed  it  as  a  whole- 
some effort  so  to  state  the  great  doctrines  of  grace  as  to  be  loyal  to  the 
truth  on  the  divine  side,  while  giving  the  human  will  a  more  responsible 
activity.  Beyond  a  doubt,  the  extreme  of  the  movement  as  seen  in  New 
England,  and  possibly  in  other  quarters,  swept  men  to  an  assertion  of 
human  ability,  and  of  related  truths,  out  of  all  harmony  with  the  recog- 
nized teaching  of  Calvinistic  theology. 

The  controversy  within  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  long  and  bitter, 
culminating  in  the  division  of  the  church  in  1837.  These  were  painful 
years  to  Albert  Barnes.  But  through  them  all  he  bore  himself  with  a 
firmness  that  never  passed  by  its  excess  into  obstinacy ;  with  a  gentleness 
that  never  degenerated  into  weakness  ;  and  with  a  patience  that  was 
never  rufiied.  Tenaciously  holding  to  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth, 
expressing  with  no  "  bated  breath  "  his  own  convictions,  condemned  by 
a  lower  judicatory,  but  acquitted  at  last  by  the  highest  court  known  in 
the  church,  he  came  out  of  the  conflict  as  he  had  entered  it,  with  a  char- 
acter ixntarnished  and  a  name  above  suspicion  or  reproach.  However 
men  may  have  differed  as  to  the  soundness  of  some  of  his  doctrinal 
statements  and  positions,  they  did  not  differ  as  to  the  purity  of  his  mo- 
tives and  the  guilelessness  of  his  spirit. 

Mr.  Barnes  remained  conspicuously  connected  with  what  was  known 
as  the  New  School  Branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  until  in  1869 


772  THE    CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

the  separate  bodies  came  together  again,  in  substantial  and  catholic 
unity,  on  the  basis  of  the  common  standards  —  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion of  Faith  and  the  Catechism.  With  pen  and  tongue,  through  press 
and  2)ulpit,  this  laborious  and  able  man  of  God  unquestionably  contrib- 
uted largely,  by  his  temperate  and  balanced  presentation  of  the  agency 
of  God  and  man  in  redemption,  to  that  state  of  things  which  made  the 
reunion  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  possible,  and  which  so  happily 
characterizes  the  union  as  actually  accomplished.  And  whether  or  not 
all  would  ex^jress  themselves  as  in  accord  with  his  "  views  "  and  termi- 
Fideiity  to  ^ology,  all  will  most  certainly  believe  this  public  avowal 

truth.  which  he  made  late  in  life  :  "I  have  aimed  in:my  ministry 

to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  I  have  embraced  the  Trinitarian 
system  of  religion  and  the  Calvinistic  system,  and  have  not  concealed 
the  features  of  these  systems  from  the  world.  I  have  endeavored  to  set 
forth  the  doctrines  of  human  depravity  and  of  the  atonement  and  of  the 
necessity  of  regeneration  by  the''Holy  Ghost.  I  have  defended  the  doc- 
trine of  decrees,  of  election,  of  justification  by  faith,  and  of  future  ret- 
ribution. I  have  endeavored  to  show  to  men  that  they  could  be  saved 
by  no  merit  of  their  own,  and  that  their  own  works  will  avail  them  noth- 
ing in  the  matter  of  justification  before  God."  Surely,  he  not  only 
"  fought  a  good  fight,"  but  he  "  kept  the  faith." 

As  he  approached  the  close  of  his  life,  his  own  testimony  was  that 
"  the  objects  of  eternity  became  overpoweringly  bright  and  grand."  Yet 
he  did  not  lose  his  interest  in  this  world,  as  the  scene  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  great  plans  of  God.  He  cherished  to  the  last  the  cheer- 
fullest  views  of  the  world,  of  the  certain  progress  of  the  race,  of  the 
destiny  of  man.  "  Never,"  said  he  in  his  seventieth  year,  "  never  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  did  young  men  enter  on  their  career  with  so 
much  to  cheer  them,  to  animate  them,  to  inspire  them  with  hope,  to  call 
forth  their  highest  powers  for  the  promotion  of  the  great  objects  which 
enter  into  the  civilization,  the  progress,  and  the  happiness  of  man.  The 
opinions  of  a  man  at  seventy  years  of  age  have  been  long  maturing, 
and  he  is  not  likely  materially  to  change  them.  I  shall  cherish  these 
views  till  I  die,  and  I  shall  close  my  eyes  in  death  with'  bright  and  glo- 
rious hopes  in  regard  to  my  native  land,  to  the  thurch,  and  to  the 
world." 

He  was  full  of  years  and  full  of  honors  when  God  called  him  to  the 
higher  honors  of  the  skies.  What  shall  we  say  of  such  a  man  ?  He  was 
distinguished  by  a  rare  balance  of  faculties.  He  had  also  a  rare  com- 
mand of  his  faculties.  He  was  "  conscience  incarnate,"  a  man  for  the 
stake,  if  need  be,  but  not  for  a  compromise  of  what  he  believed  to  be 
the  truth.  Yet  his  heart  was  full  of  charities  withal.  His  affectionate- 
ness  and  childlikeness  won  for  him  a  peculiarly  tender  regard.  As  a 
friend  he  knew  no  guile,  there  being  deep-rooted  in  his  heart  every  ten- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     THOMAS  HEWLINGS  STOCKTON.  773 

der  and  sympathetic  virtue.  As  a  man,  he  was  singularly  regardful  of 
the  rights  of  man,  and  was  always  the  champion  of  all  that  were  op- 
pressed and  that  were  of  low  degree.  As  a  patriot  he  loved  his  country 
too  well  to  defend  her  in  wrong.  As  a  pastor  he  won  and  kept  his  peo- 
ple's hearts.  As  a  reasoner  he  was  calm,  comprehensive,  logical.  As  a 
commentator  he  was  remarkable  for  simplicity,  clearness,  and  fidelity. 
As  a  preacher  he  was  instructive,  convincing,  balanced,  and  bold,  never 
breaking  faith  with  truth.  As  a  man  of  God  he  witnessed  a  good  con- 
fession, and  dying  the  death  of  the  righteous,  he  passed  into  "  the  better 
country."     The  fragrance  of  his  name  fills  the  whole  earth.  — ■  H.  J. 


LIFE  XXIX.    THOMAS  HEWLINGS  STOCKTON. 

A.  D.    180S-A.    D.    1868.       METHODIST    PROTESTANT, AMERICA. 

This  eminent  Christian  was  born  at  Mount  Holly,  Burlington  County, 
New  Jersey,  June  4,  1808.  His  ancestry  was  respectable,  intelligent, 
pious.  His  religious  views  were  decidedly  Methodistic,  his  inclinations 
and  preferences  having  been  influenced  by  his  social  surroundings,  as  his 
grandfather's  family,  his  father's  family,  and  his  early  associates  were 
connected  with  that  denomination  of  Christians,  himself  uniting  in  that 
church  fellowship  in  early  life.  His  attachment  to  the  Wesleyan  doc- 
trines and  means  of  grace  was  ardent,  unfaltering,  throughout  his  life  ; 
nor  did  his  dissent  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  order  ever 
dull  his  affection  for  the  denomination,  or  interfere  with  his  pure  love  -for 
those  who  preferred  and  sustained  its  ecclesiastical  arrangement. 

His  opinions  of  church  order,  that  led  him  into  dissent  from  the  ec- 
clesiasticism  in  which  he  was  trained,  grew  out  of  the  peculiarity  of  his 
mind,  and  his  close  observance  of  the  Scripture  history,  impressed  as 
he  was  with  the  evident  facts  that  our  divine  Lord  forbade   ^^.  ^  ^^ 

His  father. 

mastery,  requiring  brotherhood,  rejecting  hierarchy,  and 
demanding  ministry,  service.  Accordingly,  when  "his  father,  William  S. 
Stockton,  son  of  two  of  the  earliest  Methodists  in  the  State  of  New 
Jersey,  — '  a  simple-hearted,  active-minded,  observant,  thoughtful,  honest, 
earnest,  zealous,  sanguine  American  freeman  and  Christian,  desiring  and 
aiming  only  to  do  good,  and  setting  so  much  value  on  all  great  rights 
and  interests  as  to  be  willing  to  toil  and  make  sacrifices  in  their  behalf,' 
—  originated  in  1821  the  'Wesleyan  Repository,'  open  to  the  discussion 
of  such  reforms  as  were  deemed  desu-able  in  the  ecclesiastical  polity  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  at  a  time  when  the  son  was  of  an  age 
to  become  deeply  interested  in  such  matters,  this  publication  and  the  con- 
troversy growing  out  of  it  led  to  radical  views  by  Thomas  Stockton  on 
church  government."  ^ 

1  Memorial  Discourse,  by  Eev.  J.  G.  Wilson. 


774  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

In  the  same  tender,  loving,  excellent  discourse  from  which  we  have 
just  quoted,  we  have  the  views  of  Stockton  as  to  the  comparative  mer- 
its of  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  Methodism.  "  Primitive  Methodism  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  purest  and  most  useful  revival  of  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus,  ever  known  in  the  history  of  the  church.  Even  in  its  present 
numerous  and  diverse  forms,  I  think  it  may  be  said  of  it,  with  entire 
propriety,  at  least  in  relation  to  our  own  country,  that,  if  Providence 
should  decree  that  only  one  of  the  existing  systems  of  Christian  agency 
should  remain  in  existence  after  this  night,  there  is  reason  to  desire  that 
it  might  be,  and  to  believe  that  it  wofild  be,  the  great  Methodist  system ; 
the  most  hopeful  of  all,  by  far,  in  view  of  the  salvation  of  the  people  at 
large.  But  originally  Methodism  was  only  spii-itual.  Since  then  it  has 
become  ecclesiastical.  Its  spiritual  character  has  always  been  its  glory. 
Its  ecclesiastical  character  has  always  been  its  shame.  From  the  begin- 
ning, its  government  has  been  an  intermitting  volcano,  starting,  at  va- 
rious intervals,  into  flaming  eruption,  and  filling  the  circuit  of  its  power 
with  saddest  devastations.  Alas,  for  all  man's  governments !  Alas,  for 
all  over-government;  all  unyielding  government,  all  idolized  govern- 
ment !  Would  to  God  that  Christ  might  be  confessed  all  in  all,  that 
the  time  might  be  hastened  in  which  '  the  government  shall  be  upon  his 
shoulder '  and  nowhere  else,  in  which  his  people  shall  be  '  not  without 
law  to  God,  but  under  the  law  to  Christ,'  and  to  no  one  else."  -^ 

He  was  no  partisan  ;  party  spirit,  machinery,  schemes,  he  held  in  utter 
abhorrence.  His  mind,  his  heart,  he  knew  to  be  open  to  the  eye  of  God, 
and  he  never  concealed  them  from  the  eye  of  man  ;  any  one  who  wished 
might  know  his  aims  and  desires.  Honestly  endeavoring  to  be  instructed 
by  the  divine  word,  he  was  never  ashamed  of  what  he  had  learned,  but 
was  ever  ready  to  impart  the  sacred  lessons  to  others,  in  the  firm  faith 
that  true  wisdom  was  to  be  derived  from  no  other  than  the  holy,  copious 
source  of  all  truth. 

Having  selected  medicine  as  a  profession,  he  commenced  the  study  of 
it  under  Dr.  Thomas  Dunn,  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  then  residing, 
but  Providence  had  made  a  different  selection  ;  for  the  "  Wesleyan  Reposi- 
tory "  having  attracted  the  attention  of  Revs.  N.  Snethen,  Asa  Shinn, 
Samuel  K.  Jennings,  Alexander  McCaine,  John  S.  Reese,  and  many 
others  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  ministry  and  laity,  a  reform  in  the 
government,  so  as  to  admit  lay  representation,  in  connection  with  the 
previous  demand  for  an  elective  presiding  eldership,  and  diminution  of 
the  episcopal  prerogative,  was  insisted  upon  ;  terminating  in 
Methodist  Prot-    the  expulsion  of  some  of  the  reformers  in  Baltimore  and 

estant  Church.  ^  .  .        .  „ 

elsewhere,  and   compellmg  a  distinct   organization  or  an- 
other church,  known  as  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  with  lay  rep- 
resentation and  elective  presidency,  and  without  bishops. 
1  Memorial  Discourse,  page  21. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     THOMAS  HEWLINGS   STOCKTON.  lib 

This  movement  involved  "William  Stockton  and  his  sou,  of  course, 
and  they  identified  themselves  with  and  took  part  in  the  moulding  and 
outset  of  the  new  organization,  of  which  they  were  sincere  and  self- 
sacrificing  supporters,  their  pens,  purses,  and  persons  surrendered  in 
hearty  allegiance,  as  might  have  been  expected  of  men  of  their  integrity 
and  piety.  Young  Stockton,  after  preaching  a  few  times  in  Philadelphia, 
in  1829,  was  received  as  an  itinerant  into  the  Maryland  annual  confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and  appointed  to  a  circuit  on 
the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  where  his  deep  piety,  his  innate  gentle- 
ness of  manner,  his  extraordinary  eloquence,  and  his  inimitable  style  of 
preaching,  secured  the  affection,  admiration,  confidence  of  the  crowded 
audiences  who  attended  his  wonderful  ministry  of  the  glorious  gospel  of 
Christ.  His  pure  Christian  character,  his  exact  truthfulness  and  integ- 
rity, his  affectionate  disposition  and  fraternal  bearing,  with  his  transcend- 
ent ability  in  the  pulpit,  —  in  connection  with  the  prudence,  talents,  and 
marked  ability  of  the  superintendent  of  the  circuit,  Rev.  Dr.  John  S- 
Reese,  of  sainted  memory,  and  the  meekness,  pious  deportment,  learning, 
and  ample  ministerial  endowments  of  their  youngest  colleague,  the  so 
much  regretted  Rev.  Charles  W.  Jacobs,  —  fixed  the  eyes  of  very  many 
upon  the  young  church  in  which  these  excellent  and  gifted  men  minis- 
tered, and  won  for  it  popularity  and  support.  The  public  saw  that  these 
ministers  were  true  Christians,  true  Methodists,  differing  from  others  of 
that  name  not  at  all  in  doctrine,  but  only  in  ecclesiastical  order,  and  gave 
them  respect  and  support. 

In  1830,  Stockton,  then  but  twenty-two  years  of  age,  was  ap- 
pointed a  delegate  to  the  convention  which  formed  the  constitution  and 
discipline  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and  was  stationed  in  Bal- 
timore, superintendent  of  the  two  churches  there  comprising  the  station ; 
his  ministry  drawing  crowds  of  intelligent,  appreciative  auditors,  and  oc- 
casioning the  conversion  of  many,  and  their  adhesion  to  the  young  de- 
nomination. In  1832  he  was  returned  to  the  Eastern  Shore,  and  made 
his  home  in  Easton,  Talbot  County,  where  his  memory  is  still  cherished 
by  his  surviving  contemporaries.  In  1833-1834  he  was  stationed  in 
Georgetown,  District  of  Columbia,  and  elected  chaplain  to  Congress, 
where  vast  multitudes  attested  his  popularity  and  unsurpassed  jDOwer  as 
a  proclaimer  of  the  gospel,  which  glowed  in  his  heart  and  gushed  in 
wondrous  sweetness  from  his  lips.  He  was  pronounced  to  be  nature's 
orator,  and  his  gifts  were  regarded  as  extraordinarily  eminent. 

He  was  again  stationed,  1836-37,  in  Baltimore,  at  St.  John's,  which 
had  become  a  distinct  charge.  It  was  thought  at  this  time  by  the  best 
medical  skill  that  his  lungs  were  so  much  diseased  that  his  stay  upon 
earth  would  be  limited  to  a  few  months.  It  is  remarkable  that  when 
this  opinion  was  communicated  to  him  by  his  sympathizing  and  faithful 
physician,  he  could  not  credit  it ;  he  appearing  to  feel  within  him  a 


776  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

decided  contradiction,  an  instinctive  assurance  that  more  days  would  be 
allotted  him ;  and  this  remarkable  experience  re-occurred  twice  in  other 
cities. 

The  general  conference  of  1828  elected  him  editor  of  "  The  Method- 
ist Protestant,"  the  official  paper  of  the  church,  published  weekly  (as  at 
this  day)  in  Baltimore ;  but  he  could  not  consent  to  certain  rules  of  pub- 
lication established  by  the  book  committee,  the  controlling  authority,  and 
he  declined  the  position,  resigning  his  superintendeucy  of  St.  John's,  and 
removing  with  his  family  to  Philadelphia.  Here  he  preached  in  the 
hall  of  the  Philadelphia  Institute,  Filbert  Street,  with  his  accustomed 
power  and  success;  organized  the  First  Methodist  Protestant  Church, 
1839  ;  dedicated  their  house  of  worship,  a  fine  structure  built  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Wood  and  Eleventh  streets ;  and  ministered  therein  with  great 
popularity  and  usefulness,  until  1847,  when  he  was  invited  to  the  Sixth 
Street  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  Cincinnati,  where  he  remained  the 
greater  part  of  three  years,  exerting  his  usual  commanding  influence. 
Early  in  1849  he  was  elected  president  of  INIiami  University  ;  but,  while 
that  position  was  very  desirable  for  many  reasons,  he  decided  that  duty 
required  him  to  decline  it,  which  he  did,  and  remained  at  his  post.  Cer- 
tain great  plans  for  extending  his  influence  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
specific  church  he  was  serving,  and  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  gen- 
erally, occasioning  dissatisfaction,  he  resigned  his  superintendency  De- 
cember 24, 1849,  and  commenced  services  in  the  Unitarian  chapel,  where, 
thouo-h  known  to  be  a  clearly  pronounced  Trinitarian,  he  was  treated 
with  a  kindness  that  he  ever  after  spoke  of  with  grateful  recognition. 
He  next  occupied  the  Masonic  Hall,  where  he  had  more  space,  and  for 
the  use  of  which  he  had  cause  to  express  his  sense  of  obligation ;  for  he 
was  the  open  opposer  of  all  secret  associations,  although  some  of  them 
embraced  many  of  his  most  esteemed  and  beloved  brethren  and  friends. 

In  the  midst  of  his  efforts  in  these  unusual  pulpits  and  engagements 
with  the  press,  he  received  an  invitation  from  St.  John's,  Baltimoi-e,  then 
an  independent  Methodist  Protestant  church,  under  the  pastorate  of 
Rev.  A.  Webster,  D.  D.,  to  the  position  of  co-pastor,  with  no  other  obli- 
gation than  to  preach  in  the  evening  of  each  Sabbath.  He  accepted, 
went  on,  commencing  his  labors  to  crowded  congregations,  and  continued 
among  those  loving,  admiring  friends,  with  much  usefulness,  until  1856 ; 
when,  after  having  aided  in  sustaining  the  pulpit  of  the  Fayette  Street 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Church,  after  the  death  of  Rev.  John  M.  Dun- 
can, D.  D.,  until  they  could  find  a  pastor,  he  again  returned  to  Philadel- 
phia, where  he  continued  to  try  to  be  useful,  preaching  and  publishing, 
until  1860;  when  he  was  once  more  elected  chaplain  to  Congress,  and 
reelected  in  1862. 

In  1865,  after  a  happy  union  of  thirty-seven  years,  he  was  separated 
by  death  from  his  beloved,  faithful  wife,  the  mother  of  his  eleven  chil- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     THOMAS  HEWLINGS  STOCKTON.  Ill 

dren ;  to  which  last  fact  he  thus  alluded,  upon  presenting  her  with  a 
copy  of  Mrs.  Welby's  Poems  :  "  Your  poems,  my  dear  Anna,  are  in 
eleven  volumes.  Two  of  them  the  Lord  was  so  pleased  with  that  He 
has  put  them,  in  gold  binding,  on  a  pearl  shelf  in  his  own  library  in 
heaven.  The  other  nine  are  yet  with  us,  awaiting  his  approval.  May  I 
stand  by  your  side  when  you  see  them  there,  in  one  complete  and  beau- 
tiful collection." 

The  few  years  of  his  own  further  earthly  stay  were  passed  in  great 
physical  debility,  but  with  no  failure  of  his  intellectual  force  or  brilliancy. 
He  bore  clear  testimony  to  the  excellency  of  the  gospel  and  the  power  of 
divine  grace ;  conversing  with  his  children  and  Christian  friends,  in  his 
usual  serene  and  instructive  manner,  until  October  9,  1868,  when  he  de- 
parted to  his  rest. 

His  intellectual  endowments  were  wonderful ;  equally  so  were  his 
oratorical  gifts ;  the  exact  sympathy  between  his  soul  and  body  consti- 
tuting him  the  most  graphic  and  overpowering  of  preachers.  His  imagi- 
nation was  apparently  inexhaustible ;  equal,  as  his  auditors  felt,  to  any 
demand  upon  it :  from  any  high  point,  from  which  it  might  be  supposed 
further  ascent  was  imiiossible,  he  gracefully  rose  with  the  ease  and  fresh- 
ness of  an  incipient  Hight.  The  same  might  be  said  of  his  logic  and 
rhetoric ;  and  to  use  those  great  powers,  he  had  the  most  suitable  instru- 
mentality, in  his  tall  form,  dignity  of  manner,  large  expressive  eye,  clear 
voice  of  wonderful  compass  and  force,  perfect  enunciation,  the  most  pli- 
able .facial  muscles,  and  such  angelic  sweetness  of  expression  in  his  coun- 
tenance, that  at  times  he  seemed  to  be  unearthly. 

The  church  in  whose  organization  he  took  the  deepest  interest  con- 
tains the  elements  that  lie  approved,  and  in  its  commun-  characteristics 
ion  he  continued  throughout  life.  Methodistic  in  its  doc-  oaist  Protestant 
trines,  means  of  grace,  and  modes ;  but  in  its  order,  non-  church, 
episcopal,  with  an  elective  presidency,  a  regular  itinerancy,  balanced  by 
a  full  lay  representation ;  so  that  both  the  lay  and  ministerial  delegates  to 
the  general  conference,  the  legislative  body,  are  elected  by  the  votes  of 
the  ministers  and  laymen  of  the  annual  conferences,  voting  by  order; 
a  majority  of  each  order  being  necessary  to  the  election  of  any  delegate, 
lay  or  ministerial.  The  progress  of  the  church  was  embarrassed  awhile, 
as  in  the  case  of  others,  by  the  slavery  agitation,  causing  a  serious  divis- 
ion from  the  Southern  conferences ;  but  since  the  war  this  has  been 
all  harmoniously  adjusted,  and  tlie  several  sections  are  once  more  acting 
in  happy  and  prosperous  union ;  their  statistics  entitling  them  to  rank 
among  the  leading  denominations  of  American  Christendom.  This  re- 
sult Dr.  Stockton  did  not  live  to  see  ;  but  though  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church  was  never  just  what  he,  or  any  of  its  founders,  desired,  yet  he 
deemed  it  the  most  liberal  form  of  Methodism,  and  continued  his  iden- 
tification with  it  to  the  close.     His  heart  longed  for  a  union  of  all  the 


778  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

denominations  of  Christians,  that  the  unity  of  spirit  might  be  manifested 
in  a  unity  of  form ;  sectarianism  disappearing,  vanishing  out  of  sight, 
substituted  by  blessed  Christian  unity ;  "  that  they  all  might  be  one ; " 
the  one  Church  of  the  one  Lord ;  Christ  the  Master,  Christians  breth- 
ren :  as  it  will  be  in  the  end,  and  as  is  now  the  tendency,  evidenced  by 
the  mutual  attraction  of  all  evangelical  denominations,  as  they  pleas- 
antly and  efficiently  cooperate  in  active  exertions  for  the  sjjread  of  the 
gospel,  at  home  and  abroad.  —  A.  W. 


LIFE  XXX.     JOHN  TAYLOR  PRESSLY. 

A.  D.  1795-A.  D.   1870.       UNITED    PRESBYTERIAN, ABIERICA. 

The  United  Presbyterian  Church  of  North  America  represents  a  type 
of  Calviuistic  Presbyterian  ism  in  close  resemblance  to  that  of  the  earlier 
history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  It  was  formed  by  a  union  of  ele- 
ments of  secession  from  that  church  whose  aim  it  had  been  to  preserve 
some  of  its  best  attainments.  The  Reformed  Church  of  Scotland,  or, 
as  sometimes  called,  the  Covenanter,  was  constituted  of  those  who  refused 
to  acquiesce  in  the  Religious  Settlement  of  1688,  mainly  because  of  its 
annulling  some  of  the  covenant  obligations  of  the  church  and  kingdom  of 
Scotland.  The  Associate  Church  of  Scotland,  sometimes  called  the  Se- 
ceder,  came  into  existence  by  the  secession  of  1733,  in  maintenance  of 
the  rights  of  congregations  and  the  interests  of  the  "  marrow  doctrines  " 
of  the  gospel  as  endangered  by  the  patronage  and  moderatism  of  the 
times.  Men  of  both  these  churches  appeared  in  this  country  before  our 
Revolutionary  War.  After  the  independence  of  our  nation  had  been 
secured,  most  of  the  ministers  and  members  of  these  churches  entered 
into  the  union  which  gave  origin  to  what  became  known  as  the  Associate 
Reformed  Church  of  North  America.  Two  ministers  and  several  con- 
gregations of  the  Associate  Church  did  not  enter  this  union,  but  kept  up 
its  continued  organization.  They  were  soon  strengthened  by  large  ac- 
cessions from  the  mother  church  in  Scotland,  and  speedily  grew  into  a 
strong  and  influential  body.  Both  of  these  churches  prospered  —  the 
Associate  and  the  Associate  Reformed  —  and  worked  each  by  the  side  of 
the  other,  sometimes  talking  and  negotiating  for  union,  but  without  avail 
until  1858,  when  they  united  on  the  basis  of  the  Westminster  standards 
in  connection  with  a  specific  testimony  for  such  doctrines  of  them  as  had 
suffered  perversion  or  neglect,  and  against  some  of  the  more  flagrant 
errors  and  evils  of  the  times. 

Thus  came  into  existence  what  is  now  known  as  the  United  Presby- 
terian Church  of  North  America.  And  nothing  more  is  needed  to  indi- 
cate its  distinctive  character  than  the  brief  statement  made  of  its  origin 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JOHN  TAYLOR  PRESSLY.  779 

and  the  ecclesiastical  elements  from  which  it  was  formed.  It  is  stoutly 
Calvinistic  in  faith  and  Presbyterian  in  order  of  govern-  united  Presby- 
ment.  The  Psalms  of  the  Bible,  in  the  best  possible  version,  terians. 
are  its  authorized  system  of  praise.  Its  laws  of  fellowship  guard  care- 
fully the  purity  and  good  order  of  the  church.  In  old-fashioned  fortitude 
it  arrays  itself  against  all  flagrant  immoralities  and  evils,  of  whatever 
form  and  however  formidable.  It  is  uncompromisingly  antislavery,  and 
was  so  when  slavery  so  dominated  the  land  as  to  make  even  churches 
foster  and  defend  it.  And  now  it  arrays  itself  with  like  faithfulness  and 
fortitude  against  the  scarcely  less  formidable  evil  of  oath-bound  secret 
societies,  the  great  social  evil  of  the  times,  demoralizing  the  church  as 
well  as  society  at  large.  In  all  respects  it  seeks  to  maintain  the  claims 
of  God,  the  supremacy  of  his  law  and  authority  in  all  the  relations  of 
life. 

Among  those  who  acted  a  leading  part  in  organizing  this  church,  and 
in  maintaining  the  principles  it  represents,  no  one  was  more   „     ,     ,     . 

<s  i^  i-  >■  '  _       Presslys  family 

conspicuous  than  John  Taylor  Pressly.  He  was  born  in 
Abbeville  District,  South  Carolina,  March  28,  1795.  His  ancestors  were 
among  the  best  people  and  most  influential  in  the  early  history  of  his 
native  State.  It  has  been  truly  said  of  him,  "  He  was  an  honored  mem- 
ber of  an  honored  family."  In  a  large  connection  of  such  families  his 
father  and  mother,  David  and  Jane  Pressly,  were  distinguished  for.  intel- 
ligence and  godliness.  Their  home  was  one  in  which  the  Lord  dwelt  and 
in  which  bis  name  was  honored.  In  such  a  home,  where  Christian  in- 
struction and  Christian  example  were  combined  in  forming  the  best  home 
influence,  the  subject  of  this  memoir  was  born  and  grew  up  to  manhood. 
Every  member  of  the  family,  including  three  brothers  who  became  min- 
isters of  the  gospel  and  two  others  who  became  distinguished  physicians, 
and  two  sisters,  one  of  whom  became  the  wife  of  a  minister  and  the 
other  of  a  physician,  gave  to  the  world  a  useful  and  honored  Christian 
life. 

John,  however,  was  the  central  figure  of  the  family,  and  became  the 
most  distinguished.  In  early  life  he  gave  promise  of  his  after  eminence 
in  piety  and  learning.  He  made  a  profession  of  religion  while  quite 
young,  and  as  early  manifested  a  love  of  study.  His  first  church  mem- 
bership was  in  the  Cedar  Spring  congregation,  in  connection  with  the 
Associate  Reformed  Synod  of  the  South.  He  began  his  studies  in  an 
academy  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  his  home.  Afterwards  he 
entered  Transylvania  University,  Kentucky,  where  he  was  graduated  in 
1812,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age.  Long  before  this  his  mind  had 
been  turned  to  the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  Determined  to  have  the  best 
theological  training  then  to  be  had  in  this  country,  he  repaired  to  the 
seminary  in  New  York,  at  the  time  under  charge  of  the  famous  Dr.  John 
Mitchell  Mason  [see  Life  XXV.].     There  he  completed  a  full  course  of 


780  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

three  years'  study,  and  returning  home  in  the  spring  of  1815,  he  was 
licensed  by  the  Second  Associate  Reformed  Presbytery  of  South  Caro- 
lina, as  a  probationer  for  the  ministry. 

For  a  year  he  devoted  himself  to  missionary  work,  traveling  on  horse- 
His  work  ia  the  ^'>^^^  through  several  of  the  Southern  States,  and  so  far 
South.  north  as  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.     On  his  return  home, 

in  the  early  summer  of  1816,  a  call  awaited  him  to  take  pastoral  charge 
of  the  congregation  in  which  he  was  born  and  was  baptized,  and  in  which 
he  had  made  a  profession  of  religion.  This  he  accepted,  and  on  the  3d 
of  July  of  that  year  was  ordained  and  installed  as  its  pastor. 

His  pastoi'ate  of  this  Cedarville  congregation  continued  for  fifteen 
years,  peaceful,  pleasant,  and  prosperous.  He  had  done  his  work  as  a 
preacher  and  pastor  in  a  way  to  bind  his  people  to  him  in  the  strongest 
and  tenderest  bonds  of  respect  and  aiFection.  His  heart  was  bound  just 
as  strongly  to  them.  God  had  blessed  his  relation  to  them,  and  blessed 
his  work  among  them.  He  would  have  been  satisfied  and  glad  to  close 
his  life  in  their  service.  But  God  had  other  work  for  him  of  more  im- 
portance, and  with  a  wider  range  of  influence,  and  made  the  call  to  it  so 
clear  and  conclusive  as  to  be  imperative.  Hard  as  it  was  for  him  to  be 
separated  from  a  people  endeared  by  so  many  precious  associations,  he 
could  but  obey. 

He  had  become  widely  known,  not  only  as  a  great  preacher  himself, 
but  as  one  eminently  qualified  to  educate  preachers.  The  brethren  of  his 
own  synod  had  recognized  this,  and  had  invited  him  to  become  their 
theological  professor.  He  did  not  see  his  way  clear  to  give  consent.  Soon 
after  the  Associate  Reformed  Synod  of  the  West  had  its  attention  turned 
to  him  for  a  similar  work.  It  had  established  a  theological  seminary  at 
Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  in  1825,  that  had  begun  a  work  of  great  prom- 
ise. Its  chair  of  theology  had  been  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  its  first 
professor.  Dr.  Joseph  Kerr.  After  searching  diligently  and  prayerfully 
for  one  to  fill  this  vacancy,  the  synod  with  entire  unanimity  elected  this 
rising  man  of  the  Synod  of  the  South.  In  all  the  proceedings  which 
resulted  in  his  election,  and  in  the  manner  of  it,  the  leadings  of  Provi- 
dence were  manifest.  Deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  divine  call 
to  this  work  he  obeyed,  and  at  once  began  his  preparations  to  engage  in 
it.  He  was  elected  on  the  10th  of  October,  1831,  and  at  the  opening  of 
the  next  year,  the  5th  of  January,  1832,  appeared  in  Pitts- 
in  westi-nT"  burgh,  and  the  week  after  entered  on  the  duties  of  his  pro- 
ennsj  Tama.  fessorship.  His  singuhu'  fitness  for  the  work  was  soon  rec- 
ognized and  widely  known,  and  added  a  new  and  great  attraction  to 
the  seminary.  Students  were  drawn  to  it  from  all  parts  of  the  church, 
North  and  South. 

His  powers  as  a  preacher  were  as  soon  and  as  generally  felt,  and  caused 
no  little  rivalry  among  the  vacant  congregatious  in  the  vicinity  of  the 


Cent.  XVn. -XIX.]    JOHN  TAYLOR  PEE  SSL  Y.  781 

seminary  for  his  pastoral  services.  A  congregation  recently  organized  in 
the  neighboring  city  of  Allegheny  was  the  most  convenient,  and,  although 
at  the  time  among  the  youngest  and  feeblest  of  the  congregations  seek- 
ing his  services,  was  preferred.  Its  call,  made  October  15,  1832,  was  ac- 
cepted. At  the  next  meeting  of  the  synod  the  seminary  was  located  in 
Allegheny,  instead  of  Pittsburgh. 

The  pastorate  now  begun  was  one  of  the  most  successful  of  modern 
times.  The  audiences  increased  week  by  week.  The  membership  mul- 
tiplied correspondingly.  In  a  short  time,  the  little  congregation  had 
grown  into  one  of  the  largest  and  most  influential  of  its  denomination,  or 
indeed  of  any  denomination,  in  the  vicinity.  A  new  and  larger  church 
building  was  soon  required  to  accommodate  the  swelling  numbers  ;  and 
still  another,  larger  and  more  commodious,  with  the  finest  auditorium  in 
the  twin  cities,  was  built  before  Pressly's  death.  His  pastorate  of  this 
congregation,  covering  thirty-eight  years,  was  remarkable  for  an  unbroken 
confidence  and  affection  between  pastor  and  people.  They  were  a  mut- 
ual joy  and  rejoicing  to  each  other.  To  his  people  there  was  no  preach- 
ing like  his,  or  deportment  so  truly  and  nobly  Christian.  His  influence 
over  them  seemed  unbounded.  We  cannot  wonder  at  the  success  of  his 
ministry  among  them.  So  strong  in  the  hearts  of  his  people,  so  strong 
in  his  own  character,  so  mighty  in  the  Scriptures  as  he  proved  himself 
to  be,  and  withal  so  watchful,  faithful,  and  tender  as  a  pastor,  the  wonder 
would  have  been  if  the  results  had  been  less.  And  not  in  his  own  con 
gregation  merely  did  the  effects  of  his  work  appear. 

While  it  so  prospered,  other  congregations  by  overflows  from  it  were 
gathered  around  it,  which  have  since  become  large  and  influential.  The 
present  strength  of  his  denomination  in  and  around  the  two  cities  of  Pitts- 
burgh and  Allegheny  is  largely  due  to  the  power  he  put  forth  for  it. 
And  it  is,  perhaps,  not  claiming  too  much  to  say  that  other  evangelical 
denominations  owe  much  to  the  influence  of  his  life  and  work.  He  im- 
pressed himself  on  the  whole  religious  community  in  which  he  lived. 
When  he  died  people  of  all  the  denominations  felt  that  a  great  man  had 
fallen  in  Israel. 

He  died  on  the  13th  of  August,  1870,  in  the  seventy-sixth  year  of  his 
age  and  the  fifty-fifth  of  his  ministry,  leaving  a  memorial  in  his  work  and 
a  fragrance  in  his  name  through  which  his  memory  has  been  made  dear 
to  countless  hearts. 

A  man  of  such  prominence  among  his  brethren  and  such  usefulness  in 
the  church,  it  must  be  believed,  had  some  uncommon  elements  of  power. 
Everything  in  him  and  about  him  as  he  stood  among  men,  ^^  personal  ap- 
and  in  every  sphere  in  which  he  moved,  marked  him  as  a  pearance. 
man  above  the  general  average  of  men.  He  had  a  commanding  per- 
sonal appearance.  He  was  blessed  with  great  bodily  strength  in  stately 
form,  and  moved  with  a  dignity,  even  majesty,  that  commanded  attention 


782  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

and  admiration  wherever  he  appeared.     In  social  life  his  presence  was 
always  felt  as  that  of  a  great  roan,  above  all  as  a  man  of  God. 

His  mind  seemed  to  be  formed  on  a  corresponding  scale,  and  capable, 
with  ease,  of  an  amount  of  work  under  which  most  men  would  have 
sunk.  The  magnitude  of  the  mental  work  through  which  he  went,  with- 
out any  apparent  difficulty,  was  wonderful.  For  sixteen  years  he  had 
the  whole  work  of  the  seminary  in  connection  with  the  most  arduous 
pastoral  labors.  Part  of  this  time  he  edited  a  religious  newspaper.  And 
all  this  time  he  had  a  leading  part  to  act  in  the  councils  and  the  manage- 
ment of  the  general  work  of  his  church.  And  with  all  this,  done  with 
scrupulous  punctuality  and  completeness,  he  found  time  to  contribute 
largely  to  the  periodical  literature  of  the  times,  and  to  prepare  several 
volumes  on  disputed  points  in  theology.  The  man  who  could  do  with 
ease  all  this  work  must  have  had  no  ordinary  power.  Something,  it  is 
true,  must  be  credited  to  his  order  of  working,  so  systematic  as  to  have 
a  time  and  place  for  every  part  of  it,  each  part  receiving  the  needed 
attention  at  the  proper  time.  This  was  a  mental  habit  with  him,  into 
which  his  naturally  strong  and  facile  mind  readily  fell.  It  shows  the 
value  of  system,  but  it  also  shows  the  greatness  of  the  mind  that  so 
worked  and  to  such  grand  results. 

His  preaching  was  of  the  best  style  of  the  pulpit,  that  which  threw 
its  whole  force  into  the  exposition  and  application  of  the  Word  of  God. 
There  was  nothing  of  the  sensational  or  rhapsodical  in  his  style.  It 
made  no  pretense  of  meeting  the  ideals  of  those  who  think  of  pulpit 
powers  as  made  up  of  dazzling  human  thought  set  in  the  forms  of  a  fas- 
tidious rhetoric  and  delivered  with  the  studied  arts  of  oratory.  It  was 
the  simple,  clear,  earnest  preaching  of  a  man  who  knew  and  felt  that  it 
was  the  truth  of  God  that  was  the  means  of  saving  souls,  and  who  gave 
all  his  power  to  explain  and  impress  this  truth  on  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  his  hearers.  He  was  remarkable  for  clearness  of  conception  and  ex- 
pression. Here,  perhaps,  was  his  great  power  as  a  preacher.  But  he 
had  also  a  good  delivery.  His  fine  personal  appearance,  his  strong,  so- 
norous, and  well  modulated  voice,  and  his  action,  always  dignified  and 
solemn,  gave  to  his  delivery  power  approaching  the  magisterial.  He  ex- 
celled in  expository  preaching.  While  no  man  knew  better  than  he  how 
a  sermon  should  be  constructed  to  best  bring  out  the  truth  and  force  of 
a  text,  he  delighted  in  explaining  the  Word  of  God  in  its  connection  and 
continuity,  and  much  of  his  preaching  was  of  this  kind.  He  has  left  i-ich 
products  of  his  expository  studies,  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  yet  be  given 
to  the  public. 

As  a  professor  of  theology  he  had  few  if  any  superiors.  It  was  here 
His  work  as  ^^^^  ^^^  clcar,  comprehensive,  richly  furnished,  and  finely 
professor.  disciplined  mind  appeared  at  its  best.     He  was  a  master  in 

every  department  of  the  course  of  study,  and  made  his  instruction  so 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JOHN  EGEDE.  783 

clear  that  only  the  veriest  dullard  could  fail  to  understand  him.  The 
great  princi2)les  of  theology,  as  taught  by  him,  appeared  as  verities  not 
to  be  questioned.  So  they  were  seen,  at  least,  by  his  students  ;  with 
them  he  was  oracular.  They  venerated  him  as  a  teacher,  and  loved  him 
as  a  father.  Some  among  them  have  finished  their  work  and  have  gone 
to  the  reward  of  the  labors  for  which  he  trained  them.  But  hundreds 
of  them  still  live,  holding  his  name  in  most  affectionate  remembrance, 
and  showing  in  their  work  the  impi'ess  of  his  teaching.  Through  them 
he  being  dead  yet  speaketh.  It  is  as  if  his  voice  were  still  sounding  in 
the  church.  It  is  more.  It  is  the  influence  of  his  life  and  work  going 
out  in  varied  and  multiplied  channels  in  the  interest  of  sound  doctrine 
and  the  saving  power  of  the  gospel. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  know  now  how  far  that  influence  will  yet  reach ; 
how  many,  in  its  widening  circle,  it  will  bring  into  the  kingdom  as  the 
ages  pass  ;  or  how  many  will  be  in  the  world  of  glory  as  the  grand  result. 
All  that  must  be  left  to  the  revealings  of  eternity.  It  is  enough  now 
that  we  have  the  instruction  and  animation  of  the  example  of  a  man  who 
lived  such  a  life  and  left  such  a  living  memorial  of  himself.  —  D.  R.  K. 


LIFE  XXXI.     JOHN  EGEDE. 

A.  D.  1686-A.  D.  1758.      LUTHERAN,  —  GREENLAND. 

"Whenever  anything  notable  has  been  done  for  the  kingdom  of  God, 
it  will  be  found  that  the  task  has  been  performed  through  a  single  indi- 
vidual. Some  one  person  has  conceived  the  enterprise,  having  been 
equipped  and  prepared  for  the  work  in  some  peculiar  way.  This  is  true 
of  the  mission  in  Greenland.  Its  never-to-be-forgotten  leader,  like  Von 
Westen,  the  pioneer  of  the  mission  to  Lapland,  was  a  Norwegian. 

In  the  southern  part  of  Seeland  island,  a  region  noted  for  its  beautiful 
forests,  green  coves,  and  glassy  lakes,  lived  in  the  sixteenth   ^    ,  ,  ,    ., 

'  °  1  b         J  '  Egede's  family. 

century,  in  the  parish  of  Egede,  a  preacher  of  some  note, 
named  Hans  Colling.  His  descendants  adojited  the  name  Egede  (from 
Eich,  or  oak)  from  the  village  in  which  the  family  resided.  A  son  of  the 
house,  Paul  Egede,  moved  at  a  later  period  to  Norway.  He  was  a  civil 
officer  in  the  Nordland  district,  and  the  parish  of  Tenjen.  His  wife  bore 
him  a  daughter  and  three  sons.  The  eldest  one  was  the  renowned  John 
Egede,  born  January  31,  1686. 

As  a  youth,  John  studied  in  Copenhagen.  When  twenty-one  (1707) 
he  preached  in  Waagen,  in  the  parish  of  Salten,  and  in  Nordland.  He 
there  married  his  excellent  wife,  Gertrude  Rask,  who  has  won  with  him 
an  immortal  name.  He  now  first  heard  of  the  settlement  in  earlier  days 
of  Greenland  by  emigrants  from  Iceland,  of  the  establishment  there  of 


784  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

a  church  with  bishops,  and  that  for  centuries  the  country  had  been  sep- 
arated from  the  civilized  world  and  had  sunk  back  into  heathenism. 
Egede  supposed  that  the  present  inhabitants  were  descendants  of  Nor- 
wegians or  Icelanders.  He  was  filled  with  the  thought  of  rekindling 
in  Greenland  the  quenched  flame.  He  could  not  rest.  This  was  the 
day  of  the  new  dawning  of  mission  activity  in  the  evangelical  church. 
Frederick  Fourth,  of  Denmark,  had  sent  missionaries  to  Tranquebar,  to 
lead  the  heathen  there  to  Christianity.  Thomas  von  "Westen  had  begun 
his  blessed  work  in  Lapland.  The  Moravians  had  been  awakened  to 
think  of  missions  through  the  visit  of  Zinzendorf  to  Copenhagen.  Mis- 
sion efforts,  it  is  true,  were  detached,  and  in  a  measure  unintelligent. 
Yet  the  seeds  which  were  to  grow  to  the  great  tree  had  already  been 
planted  in  the  soil  of  the  church. 

How  long  Egede  carried  in  his  heart  the  thought  of  his  enterprise, 
what  obstacles  he  met  in  his  home  or  in  his  neighborhood,  how  often  his 
hopes  were  frustrated  and  himself  laughed  at  as  a  fanatic  or  dreamer, 
how  often  doubts  entered  his  own  heart  whether  his  burning  zeal  for  the 
reviving  of  dead  souls  in  Greenland  was  not  a  device  of  the  devil,  and 
how  frequently  he  went  for  supj^ort  to  the  Word  of  God,  there  is  not  time 
to  tell.  The  sweetest  victory  which  God  gave  him  was  in  his  wife, 
Gertrude  Eask,  who  had  detained  him  from  his  enterprise  through  con- 
siderations such  as  flesh  and  blood  had  presented  to  her.  Her  will  was 
changed  so  that  she  was  filled  with  as  great  longing  to  go  to  Greenland 
as  was  her  husband.  She  grew  to  be  his  staff,  arousing  his  courage  ;  his 
comrade,  never  desponding,  never  fainting  even  in  the  sorest  of  life's 
emergencies. 

At  last  we  find  Egede,  after  ten  years  of  enduring  trials,  oppositions, 
After  ten  years  ^^^  disappointed  expectations,  with  his  wife  and  four  little 
land  ^°'  ^"^°'  children  setting  sail.  May  2,  1721,  from  the  harbor  of  Ber- 
gen. Three  vessels  and  forty-six  persons  now,  after  hard 
enough  effort,  accompanied  him  to  the  land  of  his  desire.  The  12th  of 
June  they  could  descry  the  coasts  of  Greenland,  but  they  were  surrounded 
by  fearful  icebergs  which  threatened  to  crush  their  ships,  nor  could  they 
find  any  way  through.  The  shipmasters  lost  courage.  The  sailors  wanted 
to  turn  and  go  home,  the  peril  was  so  great.  It  seemed,  even  to  Egede, 
that  God  had  forsaken  him.  In  this  hour  of  need  Egede  appropriated 
the  promise  of  the  one  hundred  and  seventh  Psalm  to  those  "  that  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships."  He  got  comfort  too  from  the  story  of  Paul's 
shipwreck.  His  prayers  were  answered.  The  vessels  found  their  way 
through.  The  land  of  his  heart  and  his  prayer  was  reached.  They 
landed  July  12th,  on  the  island  of  Imeriksok,  at  the  west  extremity  of 
the  district  of  Baals.     He  named  the  place  Good  Hope  (Godthaab). 

With  what  eyes  must  Egede  have  looked  upon  the  poor  inhabitants  of 
this  ice-encircled  coast,  in  whom  he  had  expected  to  find  the  descendants 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JOHN  EGEDE.  785 

of  the  old  heroic  Northmen  !  For  he  had  before  him  an  entirely  strange 
race,  with  a  peculiar  language,  of  a  construction  different  from  every 
other  known  tongue.  There  is  not  space  here  to  describe  the  Esquimaux. 
Subsisting  upon  the  coasts  of  Greenland  and  Labrador  by  the  taking  of 
seals  and  of  fish,  and  by  hunting,  they,  happy  in  their  conceit,  called 
themselves  men  (Inuit),  all  others  aliens  (Kablunat).  Their  conceptions 
of  things  spiritual  were  very  limited.  They  had  few  names  for  all  that 
could  not  be  seen  by  the  eye.  Their  "Angekokks,"  or  "medicine-men," 
shrewder  than  the  others,  wielded  a  kind  of  rule  over  them.  Other 
government  was  unknown.  Communism  in  earnings  and  enjoyments 
was  everywhere  the  rule.  Their  dwellings  were  low  huts  of  mud  in  the 
winter,  and  tents  of  skin  in  the  summer. 

Egede,  with  the  untiring  industry  which  had  distinguished  him  at 
home,  labored  for  the  poor  souls  for  whose  sake  he  had  left    ,    „ 

^  _        _  An  Esquimau 

his  fatherland  and  his  office.  With  immense  labor  he  mas-  to  the  Esqui- 
tered  the  Greenland  tongue.  He  brought  his  children  up 
with  the  Greenlanders  that  they  might  acquire  the  language  and  the  ac- 
complishments upon  which  the  people  prided  themselves.  He  found  an 
especial  helper  in  his  son  Paul,  who  was  afterward  his  successor,  and  the 
maintainer  of  the  mission.  There  is  something  very  affecting  in  the  way 
in  which  he  dealt  with  the  Greenlanders  in  reference  to  divine  truths. 
He  had  his  son  draw  pictures  of  Bible  personages  and  events.  He 
would  then  explain  them  as  well  as  he  could  to  the  attentive  listeners- 
He  received  Esquimaux  children  into  his  family  to  gain  through  them, 
the  language  and  the  affection  of  their  parents.  He  did  not  shrink  from 
staying  in  the  fearfully  stinking  huts  of  the  people.  He  and  his  faithful 
wife  knew  nothing  save  love  and  patience,  the  fruit  of  their  faith  in  Hinx. 
who  had  loved  and  called  them.  What  tiials  of  faith  did  Egede  not  have 
to  undergo  !  His  circumstances  at  home  had  compelled  him  to  seek  the 
stipport  of  the  Bergen  trading  company,  and  of  the  Danish  government. 
This  connection  of  trade  with  the  mission,  of  an  established  church  au- 
thority with  a  work  of  Christian  love,  became  a  scandal  from  which  the 
mission  in  Greenland  has  even  now  hardly  recovered.  When  business 
was  unprosperous,  the  merchants  threatened  to  withdraw  their  support. 
At  last  this  actually  came  to  pass.  Commerce  had  no  thought  of  pro- 
moting Christianity,  and  often  sent  to  Greenland  immoral,  depraved  peo- 
ple, who  tore  down  by  their  scandalous  lives  what  Egede  had  builded 
up.  The  government  had  undertaken  both  the  Greenland  commerce  and 
the  Greenland  mission.  It  knew  as  little  about  one  as  about  the  other. 
One  grand  plan  of  colonization  after  another,  unsuitable  every  way,  was 
projected,  and  soon  came  to  an  end.  The  colonists  sent  over  were  men 
and  women  from  houses  of  correction,  who  soon  put  an  end  tp  them- 
selves. King  Frederick  Fourth  dying  (1731),  his  successor  Christian 
the  Sixth,  seeing  no  material  returns  from  Greenland,  at  the  commence- 
50 


786  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

ment  of  his  reign  issued  the  strict  command  that  all  the  colonists  should 

be  withdrawn,  and  that  all  Europeans  should  come  home.     This  was  to 

Egede  a  fearful  blow.    The  germs  and  blossoms  which  even  now  were  ap- 

,  „    ,  ,    pearing  would  all  be  desti-oyed !     He  could  not  bring  him- 

Gertrude  Egede  s    r^  »  •'  . 

great  faith.  gg]f  jq  agree  to  forsake  Greenland,  neither  could  his  dear 

wife.  Lying  upon  a  bed  of  sickness,  she  strengthened  her  husband,  and 
persuaded  from  eight  to  twelve  persons  to  remain  with  him.  Resting  on 
God,  who  is  rich  to  all  who  call  upon  Him,  Egede's  faith  was  not  put  to 
shame,  though  it  had  many  a  trial.  Terrible  inward  struggles  came  upon 
him ;  his  soul  was  beset  with  anguish.  He  thought  that  he  was  forsaken 
of  God.  Though  comforted  by  his  comrades  and  children,  he  could  not 
find  repose  "  till  his  God  pitied  him,  rescuing  him  from  hell,  and  bringing 
him  again  to  life."  It  was  a  misfortune  too  that  the  king,  again  inclin- 
ing to  the  mission  (1733),  gave  permission,  at  the  entreaty  of  Count  Zin- 
zendorf,  to  the  Moravian  Brethren  to  settle  in  Greenland.  Their  cording 
was  a  blunder,  not  only  because  the  ways  o\  the  Moravians,  who  gathei- 
the  people  about  them  in  one  spot,  were  ill  suited  to  the  Greenlanders, 
who  as  nomads  must  go  from  place  to  place  in  order  to  get  a  living,  for 
which  cause  the  Moravian  colonies  are  still  the  very  poorest ;  but  also 
because  Egede,  who  at  first  welcomed  the  Brethren,  became  suspicious  of 
the  orthodoxy  of  the  Moravians,  as  did  many  in  that  day.  Out  of  this 
grew  an  unedifying  correspondence  between  Egede  and  the  Moravians, 
the  latter  taking  his  well-meant  words  angrily.  Even  till  to-day  there  is 
no  hearty  union  of  the  Danish  and  Moravian  missions  in  Greenland. 
They  labor  not  with  each  other,  but  alongside  of  each  other. 

Still  God's  Word  made  quiet  progress.  Many  souls  were  won  by  the 
Great  Fisher  of  INIen  through  the  hand  of  his  faithful  servant.  Two 
losses,  however,  affected  Egede's  heart  very  painfully.  A  Greenland 
boy,  the  only  survivor  of  six  who  had  been  sent  (1731)  to  Copenhagen, 
came  back,  alas,  bringing  with  him  the  small-pox.  One  of  Egede's  dar- 
lings. Christian  Frederick,  sickened  and  died,  as  did  the  boy.  Quickly 
the  disease  spread,  raging  fearfully  among  the  natives,  who  had  never 
known  such  a  plague.  There  died  at  Good  Hope  five  hundred  within 
a  few  months.  Those  infected  hurried  from  place  to  place,  in  spite  of 
every  entreaty  and  warning,  and  carried  the  pestilence  north  and  south. 
From  two  to  three  thousand  were  sacrificed  to  sickness,  despair,  and  ill^ 
ways  of  living.  At  this  period  of  fearful  trial,  the  love  and  patience  of 
Egede  and  his  wife  shone  forth  in  the  clearest  light.  Who  can  avoid 
being  amazed,  seeing  husband  and  wife  nursing  the  sick,  taking  them 
into  their  home,  seeking  out  everywhere  the  poor,  giving  them  bodily 
help  and  Christian  consolation,  and  putting  the  dead  in  their  graves  ? 
Egede  lived  as  it  were  in  a  graveyard.  "Was  he  right  in  not  leaving 
the  country  in  1731  ?  Was  not  the  trial  a  divine  chastisement  ?  "  This 
question  came  to  him  when  he  beheld  the  great  desolation  which  the 


Cent.  XVII. -XIX.]  JOHN  EGEDE.  787 

sickness  had  produced.  The  sorrowing  laborer  was  comforted  of  God 
by  finding  so  many  of  the  dying  who  in  their  last  hours  thanked  him  for 
their  souls'  salvation,  and  so  many  of  the  living  who  now  opened  their 
stubborn  hearts  to  the  gospel.  Thus  this  sorrow  was  made  a  door 
through  which  many  entered  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 

A  still  severer  trial  came  to  Egede  before  he  was  able  to  lay  down  his 
pastorate  in  Greenland.  His  faithful  companion  in  joy  and  in  sorrow, 
Gertrude  Rask,  succumbed  to  the  fatigues  of  the  hard  life  and  the  sea- 
sons of  severe  sickness.  She  fell  asleep  in  the  arms  of  her  dear  ones, 
happy  in  her  faith  in  her  Saviour.  Egede  felt  deeply  her  loss.  He 
knew  what  she  had  been  to  him  in  times  of  struggle  and  of  want,  of  suf- 
fering and  of  trial.  He  was  thankful  though  afflicted,  for  he  comforted 
himself  in  the  departure  of  his  wife  by  the  sure  hope  of  their  joyful  re- 
union. 

Meantime  his  son  Paul  had  finished  his   studies  in  Copenhagen,  had 
been  ordained,  and  had  come  back  to  Greenland  (1734).   j^^g^g.^g^^ 
Eeede  could  commit  the  work  into  his  hands.    The  govern-   tales  up  the 

®  ,         ,  ,  .       work. 

ment  granted  leave  to  the  weary  wayfarer  to  lay  down  his 
oflSce  and  come  back  to  Denmark.  He  gave  a  farewell  address  (from 
Isaiah  xlix.  4),  under  which  the  hearts  of  the  Greenlanders,  who  flocked 
from  all  sides,  grew  warm.  He  felt  that  he  could  do  something  at  home 
for  his  cherished  field,  and  with  his  weakened  strength  could  do  nothing 
more  in  Greenland.  With  the  remains  of  his  wife,  of  one  son,  and  of 
two  daughters,  he  left  the  scene  of  his  care  and  sorrow  on  August  9, 
1736,  and  reached  Copenhagen  September  9th,  where  in  the  Nicolai 
Church  he  found  his  faithful  companion  a  grave. 

He  toiled  in  Copenhagen  for  the  Greenlanders  in  many  ways.  Labor- 
ers for  the  mission  were  needed.  At  his  motion  a  Greenland  seminary 
was  begun,  in  which  those  who  would  go  to  that  land  as  missionaries  could 
be  instructed  especially  in  its  language.  He  was  given  the  oversight  of 
the  mission.  The  mission  college  was  supported  by  the  state.  We  will 
not  here  consider  how  little  his  enterprise  was  promoted  by  this  college. 
The  dear  old  Egede  found  his  labor  in  it  repugnant.  He  asked  and  re- 
ceived his  dismissal  (1747),  and  settled  in  Stubbekjobing,  on  the  Island 
of  Falster,  with  his  married  daughter.  He  there  spent  the  evening  of 
his  life,  till  upon  November  5,  1758,  he  was  called  to  his  Master.  He 
was  buried  in  Copenhagen  by  the  side  of  his  first  wife,  for  he  had  mar- 
ried a  second  time  (in  1740).  His  funeral  discourse  was  preached  by 
pastor  Dorph  from  the  significant  words,  "  There  was  a  man  sent  from 
God,  whose  name  was  John.  The  same  came  for  a  witness  to  bear  wit- 
ness of  the  light,  that  all  men  through  him  might  believe."  Egede  had 
labored  for  half  a  century,  and  at  his  death  was  seventy-two  years  of 
age. 

The  memory  of   the   just  is  blessed.      Egede's   children  labored  in 


788  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

Greenland  a  long  time.  We  find  among  them  Paul  Egede,  a  name 
never  to  be  forgotten,  John  Egede  Saaby,  Henry  Christopher  Glohn, 
and  others.  In  the  closing  decade  of  the  last  century  and  the  first  of 
the  present,  the  love  felt  to  the  people  so  far  away  was  chilled  by  the 
cold  wind  of  rationalism.  The  mission  college  slowly  died.  With  few 
exceptions,  the  men  sent  out  were  youths  who  had  passed  their  examina- 
tions in  Copenhagen  only  tolerably,  and  went  to  Greenland  to  establish 
a  claim  to  some  place  at  home.  The  indestructible  power  of  the  gospel 
is  shown  in  that  Christianity  which  was  preserved  and  advanced  in 
Greenland  chiefly  by  simple  native  catechists,  who  united  fishing  and 
hunting  with  their  work,  yet  struck  its  roots  deep  into  the  soil.  The 
poj)ulation  has  not  diminished,  but  increased.  There  are  from  nine  thou- 
sand to  ten  thousand  souls,  who  through  God  have  become  a  changed 
people.  When  life  was  reawakened  in  the  church  at  home,  it  sent  fresh 
germs  of  life  to  Greenland.  The  laborers  there,  now,  according  to  the 
judgment  of  the  present  writer,  who  knows  them  well,  are  faithful  serv- 
ants. At  eight  stations,  four  in  North  Greenland  (Upernivik,  Omanak, 
Jacobshavn,  Egedesminde)  and  four  in  South  Greenland  (Holsteinborg, 
Godthaab,  Frederikshaab,  and  Julianehaab),  there  are  ten  ordained  Dan- 
ish ministers,  and  about  forty  native  catechists.  The  Moravians  also 
have  five  stations.  Though  the  mistakes  may  have  been  many,  yet  the 
faithful  founder  of  the  mission  shall  join  one  day  with  a  great  multitude, 
saved  in  Greenland,  to  sing,  "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  his  Father ;  to  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  forever  and 
ever.     Amen."  —  C.  H.  K. 


LIFE   XXXII.     DAVID   ZEISBEEGER. 

A.    D.    1721-A.    D.    1808.      MORAVIAN, INDIANS    OF    AMERICA. 

Christian  missions  seem  most  successful  when  they  raise  a  strong 
nation  out  of  savagery,  giving  it  new  life  and  Christian  civilization,  thus 
introducing  it  to  history.  Yet  they  deserve  our  sympathy  as  well  when 
they  turn  their  love  to  a  people  near  extinction,  though  they  achieve 
little  save  to  brighten  at  least  its  life  evening  by  the  trust  and  love  of 
the  gospel. 

Such  a  people  are  the  various  tribes  of  American  Indians.  To  Ger- 
many, to  the  brotherhood  of  Herrnhut,  especially,  accrues  the  merit  of 
having  shown  them  the  kindness  of  Christ.  This  mission  had,  however, 
to  contend  with  peculiar  difficulties.  These  sprang  far  less  from  unsus- 
ceptibility  or  opposition  on  the  side  of  the  Indians,  than  from  the  feuds 
which  prevailed  in  the  period  of  which  we  have  to  speak.     For  not  only 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        DAVID   ZEISBERGER.  789 

a  constant  strife  existed  between  French  and  English  for  the  mastery  in 
America,  but  there  arose  also  the  great  war  in  which  the  colonies  struck 
for  independence.  In  addition  came  the  intrigues  of  European  traders, 
who  found  that  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  hurt  their  business,  and 
took  advantage  of  military  disturbances  to  calumniate  the  Moravians 
and  to  make  them  suspected  by  the  English  government.  Thus  on  their 
missions  there  came  frequent  storms  ever  and  again,  wasting  their  field 
of  toil  when  it  stood  out  in  fairest  bloom.  Such  was  the  scene  of  the 
activity  of  the  remarkable  man  of  whom  our  story  tells. 

David  Zeisberger  was  the  son  of  a  wealthy  and  pious  farmer  in  the 
village  of  Zauchtenthal,  in  Moravia,  where  he  was  born  April  11,  1721. 
Like  many  of  their  faith,  his  parents  sought  escape  from  the  persecu- 
tions then  waged  by  the  Romanists  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia.  They 
found  refuge  and  welcome  in  Herrnhut,  the  newly  founded  colony  of 
Count  Zinzendorf  [see  page  472].  Soon,  however,  they  journeyed  on 
to  America,  whither  many  of  their  country  people  had  gone  before  them. 
Their  little  son  David  they  left  behind  under  the  care  of  the  brethren 
in  Herrnhut.  When  he  was  fifteen  years  old,  Zinzendorf  took  him 
upon  a  journey  with  himself  to  Holland  and  placed  him  in  the  Moravian 
settlement  of  Herrndyk.     The  boy  felt  hampered  by  the 

-,..,.  ,\.  __  A  runaway  boy. 

strict  disciplme  prevauing.     He  ran  >  away,  accompanied  by 
a  youthful  relative   of  like  feeling,  and  embarked  for  America,  the  cap- 
tain of  a  vessel  giving  him  his  passage.     He  gave  his  parents  a  surprise, 
not  wholly  pleasant,  by  his  unexpected  arrival. 

The  Brotherhood,  engaged  since  1733  in  evangelizing  the  Indians,  had 
in  1743  established  a  colony  named  Nazareth,  some  sixty  or  seventy 
miles  to  the  north  of  Philadelphia.  Two  years  earlier  (1741)  they 
had  founded  Bethlehem,  on  the  Lehigh,  a  tributary  of  the  Delaware. 
Thither  David  traveled,  little  impelled  by  that  holy  trait  of  love  to  the 
Master  which  so  characterized  his  people.  Yet  even  there,  being  asked 
if  he  would  not  be  a  Christian,  he  answered  decidedly,  "  It  will  come,  and 
all  shall  see  that  I  am  a  converted  person."  But  in  his  twenty-second 
year  he  gave  no  evidence  of  conversion.  He  was  counted  of  no  use  for 
the  purpose  of- the  mission. 

When,  therefore,  Zinzendorf,  who  had  visited  the  Brotherhood  in  Penn- 
sylvania, was  returning  to  Europe  (1743),  it  seemed  advisable  to  let 
Zeisberger  go  also.  He  was  moved  to  accompany  the  count ;  already 
the  travelers  were  on  board  ;  the  anchor  was  weighed.  A  companion  of 
the  count,  David  Nitschmann,  asked  Zeisberger  if  he  were  glad  that  he 
was  going  to  Europe.  "  No,"  was  the  decided  answer,  joined  with  the 
confession  that  nothing  was  such  a  heart-desire  to  him  as  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian. "  Then  stay,"  was  the  advice  of  the  kind  brother.  Zeisberger  at 
once  left  the  ship  and  returned  to  Bethlehem  to  remain  in  the  forests  of 
America. 


790  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Not  long  was  it  till  the  glimmering  spark  in  the  heart  of  the  youth 
was  kindled  into  a  glow.  Once  there  was  sung  in  a  meeting  of  the 
Brethren, — 

"Abyss  of  love!  eternal,  blest,  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ  profound! 
How  burns,  how  flames  each  fiery  crest,  whose  measure  mind  has  never  found ! 
What  lov'st  Thou?     Race  of  sin  and  shame.     What  sav'st  Thou?    Sons  who  curse  thy 
name." 

The  words  vanquished  the  young  man's  heart.  Tears  of  penitence  and 
gratitude  rolled  from  his  eyes.  The  love  of  God  to  sinners  made  on 
him  a  living  indelible  impress,  turning  his  soul  newly  and  jjowerfully  to 
Christ. 

His  resolve  was  quickly  taken.  He  would  carry  the  gospel  to  the  sav- 
ages. To  them  —  poor,  hopeless,  despairing  heathen  —  he  would  an- 
nounce the  comforting  message  of  God's  grace,  which  blesses  all  who  by 
faith  embrace  the  Crucified.  In  an  incredibly  short  time  he  acquired, 
with  help  given  him  by  a  missionary,  the  language  of  the  Mohegans. 
With  a  little  trouble  he  learned,  by  going  among  the  Iroquois,  the  dialect 
of  that  widespread  and  powerful  nation.  Thus  prepared,  and  full  of  the 
courage,  perseverance,  and  patience  of  one  whom  Christ's  love  con- 
strains, he  began  the  work  which  he  had  made  his  life's  task.  It  was 
not  his  design  to  take  a  settled  station.  His  view  was  a  broad  one.  He 
would  labor  among  the  tribes  as  such,  and  thus  give  his  work  perma- 
nence. He  had  found  that  the  Indian  races,  especially  the  Delawares 
and  the  Iroquois,  or  "Six  Nations,"  though  frequently  hostile  to  the 
whites,  maintained  treaties  and  friendly  relations  among  themselves,  and 
showed  to  missionaries  living  with  them  toleration  and  kindness. 

Zeisberger  was  fitted,  by  his  knowledge  of  the  languages  and  customs 
of  the  Indians,  for  dwelling  among  them.  In  his  love  for  them  he 
adopted  their  way  of  life.  In  the  hunt  he  killed  the  game  with  ready 
and  skillful  hand.  He  applied  himself  to  their  household  arrangements 
and  to  Indian  arcliitecture.  He  thus  gained  everywhere  among  them 
immense  regard  and  peculiar  influence. 

The  mightiest  among  their  tribes  was  the  Iroquois,  whose  national 
zeisbereer  by  affairs  Were  treated  in  a  gathering  of  chiefs  held  in  Onon- 
Lake  Oneida.  daga,  ou  the  south  bank  of  Lake  Oneida.  There  was  the 
council-house,  an  edifice  reared  of  lofty  forest  trunks,  interlaced  with 
bark  of  trees.  In  this,  around  a  blazing  fire,  the  chieftains  gathered  for 
consideration  of  their  public  matters  after  certain  solemn  forms.  Thither 
we  see  Zeisberger  journey  oft  repeated  times,  in  the  first  period  of  his 
activity,  through  pathless  wildernesses  without  inhabitants,  going  through 
a  thousand  dangers  to  mediate  treaties  and  alliances  by  the  council  fires 
of  Onondaga.  He  was  assigned  a  place  of  honor  among  the  chiefs,  and 
as  he  knew  by  his  mighty  gift  of  language  how  to  touch  their  hearts, 
his  judicious  counsels  usually  jjrevailed. 


Cext.  xvii.-xix.]      da  vid  zeisberger.  791 

His  first  journey  to  Onondaga  was  with  Bishop  Spangenberg,  who  in 
1745  visited  the  Moravians  in  America.  One  day,  all  means  of  sub- 
sistence in  the  forests  failed  the  pilgrims.  They  were  exhausted  by  hun- 
ger and  fatigue.  Sjiangenberg  turned  to  Zeisberger,  and  said  affection- 
ately, "  My  dear  David,  get  your  fishing  tackle  ready,  and  catch  us  a 
mess  of  fish."  The  other  declined,  since  there  could  be  no  fish  in  such 
clear  water,  especially  at  that  time  of  year.  Spangenberg  said,  "  Inas- 
much as  I  ask  it,  my  dear  David,  fish !  Do  it  this  once,  if  only  out  of 
obedience."  "  Well,  I  will  do  it,"  he  said,  but  thought  in  his  heart, 
"  The  dear  brother  knows  just  nothing  about  fish ;  and,  indeed,  it  is  out 
of  his  line  of  business."  But  when  he  cast  his  net,  how  was  he  surprised 
at  once  to  find  it  full  of  a  multitude  of  great  fishes !  The  hungry  men 
not  only  supplied  their  hunger,  but  by  drying  the  rest  at  the  fire  made 
quite  a  provision  for  their  fui-ther  journey.  "  Did  I  not  say  to  thee," 
Spangenberg  asked  with  a  smile,  "  that  we  have  a  good  heavenly 
Father  ?  " 

Zeisberger  strove  with  untiring  zeal  to  Christianize  some  Indians  whom 
he  had  gathered  into  a  flourishing  settlement.  Telling  them  of  God's 
love  in  Christ,  and  supporting  his  words  by  his  love,  he  found  his  way  to 
the  hearts  of  the  poor  children  of  the  forest.  They  heard  their  teacher's 
voice,  even  when  it  scourged  them.  They  obeyed  it  as  it  called  them, 
as  was  sometimes  necessary,  from  relapse  into  their  former  mode  of  liv- 
ing. Once  as  he  thus  spoke,  "  as  fathers  talk  to  their  children,"  a  chief- 
tain owned  his  instant  overwhelming  power,  and  said,  "  My  brother,  I 
feel  subdued  even  as  a  little  child."  The  glowing  apostle-like  fervor  of 
Zeisberger  forced  him  into  the  deepest  forests  and  remotest  wilds.  Thus 
he  reached  Goshgoschink  on  the  distant  Ohio.  The  people  Zeisberger  by 
were  credited  with  having  no  equals  in  blood-thirstiness  and  *^®  ^^'°- 
wickedness.  They  put  captives  to  death  by  the  most  refined  cruelties.  But 
even  over  them  Zeisberger,  through  Christ's  love,  gained  an  influence. 
True,  his  counsels  were  at  first  little  heeded.  His  life  was  sought.  He 
had  to  dwell,  his  adherents  with  him,  one  whole  winter  in  a  blockhouse  to 
escape  their  attacks,  and  at  last  was  driven  from  this  also.  But  the  seed 
of  the  gospel  which  he  had  sown  rooted  itself  even  in  such  soil  as  this. 
The  Goshgoschink  council  in  solemn  assembly  agreed  that  every  one  in 
the  village  should  be  allowed  to  hear  the  gospel ;  that  Zeisberger's  jJ^r- 
don  should  be  asked  for  the  injuries  inflicted  on  him,  and  that  he  should 
be  assured  of  all  friendship.  They  said,  proud,  blood-thirsty  warriors, 
that  they  were  his  bretliren  ;  his  God  should  be  then*  God ;  they  were 
ready,  too,  whithersover  he  would  go,  to  go  with  him. 

Zeisberger's  quiet  labors  in  converting  and  training  the  Indians  were 
often  hindered.  Through  traders  from  Europe  hostile  tribes  were  stirred 
up  against  the  mission  settlements.  Attacks  occurred  more  than  once, 
ending  in  horrible  massacres.     Calumnies  against  the  missionaries  were 


792         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

carried  to  the  government,  bringing  on  them  legal  persecution.  More 
than  once  Zeisberger  felt  constrained  to  flee  with  his  newly  won  church, 
like  a  second  Moses,  through  endless  wildernesses,  deep  into  the  densest 
forests  of  America.  He  would  save  his  people  from  perdition  at  the 
hands  of  Christian  civilization.  The  hardships  of  such  journeys  were 
unspeakable.  The  wanderers  jjress  through  pathless  wilds,  climb  mount- 
ain ridges,  cross  rushing  rivers,  often  exposed  to  sore  dangers  from  hos- 
tile Indians.  Victuals  failing,  the  adults  allay  hunger  by  ill-tasting  roots, 
the  children  by  the  peeled-oif  bark  of  the  slippery  elm.  They  obtain 
help  of  God  even  in  these  extremities.  Often  they  are  strangely  deliv- 
ered. At  last  the  wanderers  reach  a  resting-place,  under  Zeisberger's 
leadership  ;  a  new  settlement  is  made  by  the  industry  of  his  flock.  Neat 
cabins,  fields,  and  gardens,  with  a  little  church,  meet  the  gaze.  Leisure 
is  granted  the  preacher  to  train  the  community,  instructing  them  by 
Scriptui'al  selections,  and  by  hymns  in  the  Delaware  and  the  Mohegan. 
Thus,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Zeisberger  labors,  with  un- 
speakable efforts  and  invincible  energy  of  mind,  to  plant  Christianity,  by 
means  of  love,  among  the  poor  natives,  and  to  guard  it  when  planted 
from  growing  dangers. 

In  1771  Zeisberger  met  Netawatmis,  chief  of  the  Delawares,  a  remark- 
able man,  of  strong  and  decided  character,  and  was  invited 

Zeisberger  settles  . 

in  what  is  now  by  him  to  form  a  new  settlement  on  the  Muskingum,  far 
beyond  the  Ohio.  The  invitation  was  accepted.  The  col- 
ony of  Schonbrunn  rose  (1772)  and  throve  splendidly.  Netawatmis  then 
invited  the  Indian  communities  elsewhere  established,  of  which  some 
stood  in  rich  bloom,  to  join  Schonbrunn.  So  under  Zeisberger's  lead  a 
little  Chi'istian  state  was  erected  in  the  deepest  forest,  an  oasis  in  the 
spiritual  waste  of  Indian  heathendom.  The  number  of  converted  Indians 
reached  four  hundred  and  fourteen.  A  new  and  joyous  life  of  faith  and 
love  prevailed.  The  chief's  family  became  Christian.  Netawatmis  him- 
self, although  he  attended  divine  worship  constantly,  to  his  sorrow  could 
not  decide  to  acknowledge  Christ.  Another  chief  of  the  Delawares, 
Killbuck,  also  called  White-Eyes,  resemblmg  his  comrade  in  valor,  mag- 
nanimity, judgment,  and  moral  character,  was  won  to  the  gosjjel  side. 
The  new  converts  grew  in  spirit,  in  knowledge,  and  in  strength  of  be- 
lieving. Zeisberger  was  and  continued  the  soul  of  all,  flourishing  among 
these  sons  of  the  forest  as  a  patriarch  in  the  midst  of  his  family,  respected, 
loved,  and  reverenced  by  all.  He  was  wont  to  name  these  the  golden 
days  of  his  life. 

They  were  of  short  duration.  Netawatmis  died  in  1777.  When  he 
felt  his  end  near,  he  summoned  the  chiefs  and  counselors  of  the  Dela- 
wares. He  expressed  to  them  his  wish  that  all  the  Delawares  receive 
the  gospel,  and  suffer  not  the  name  of  Christ  to  perish  from  their  nation. 
They  promised  him  to  fulfill,  as  far  as  possible,  his  desire.    Then  he  called 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        DAVID  ZEISBERGER.  793 

Zeisberger,  and  begged  him  to  tell  something  more  of  the  love  of  Christ. 
In  the  midst  of  the  missionary's  prayers,  offered  with  tears  and  deep 
groans,  the  old  man  closed  his  eyes.  All  the  chieftains  stood  tremblingly 
about  the  couch  of  their  dead  leader ;  then  White-Eyes  spoke,  the  Bible 
in  his  hand  :  — 

"  My  friends,  you  have  just  heard  the  last  wish  of  our  dead  chief. 
Let  us  obey  him.  We  will  kneel  down  before  God  who  created  us, 
and  pray  Him  that  He  will  be  gracious  to  us  and  reveal  his  will.  As  we 
cannot  tell  to  those  yet  unborn  the  holy  covenant  which  we  have  sworn 
by  this  corpse,  we  will  pray  the  Lord  our  God  that  He  will  make  it  known 
to  our  children  and  children's  children." 

To  the  funeral  of  the  chief  came  a  numerous  embassy  of  the  Iroquois. 
Tribe  jealousy  was  forgotten.  Iroquois  and  Hurons  approached  with 
Delawares  in  silent  grief  the  place  of  burial.  The  chief  of  the  L-oquois 
embassy  wrapped  the  body  in  clean  buckskin,  and  strewed  the  grave  with 
oak  leaves.  Zeisberger  was  among  the  mourners,  wearing  a  Delaware 
dress.  As  the  earth  covered  his  friend's  body  he  wept  bitterly,  before 
the  eyes  of  all,  an  outburst  of  feeling  to  which  the  others  by  their  rules 
were  strictly  forbidden  to  give  way. 

After  this  the  war  of  American  independence  broke  out.  The  mission- 
aries, led  by  Zeisberger,  employed  every  means  to  keep  the  Indians  neu- 
tral. Nevertheless  parties  rose  among  them,  creating  variance  between 
the  tribes.  An  English  governor  at  Detroit,  below  Lake  Huron,  incited 
the  Indians  against  the  Americans.  Thus  the  missions  were  in  danger 
from  different  sides. 

Zeisberger,  with  his  people,  quitted  the  sweetly  flourishing  Schonbrunn, 
having  first  destroyed  the  dwellings  and  the  church  to  save  them  from 
pagan  outrage.  For  a  time  he  dwelt  in  a  settlement  near  by.  His  life 
was  threatened,  and  was  saved  as  by  miracle.  He  made  a  journey  to 
Bethlehem  with  this  result,  that  at  the  desire  and  request  of  the  brethren, 
he  took  in  his  sixtieth  year  a  wife,  Susanna  Lekron.  Returning,  he  and 
two  helpers  were  taken  by  a  British  agent,  named  Eliot,  and  were  put  in 
chains.  All  the  villages  of  the  Christian  communities  were  destroyed, 
their  churches  thrown  down,  and  the  dwellings  burned.  Only  on  the 
pledge  that  they  would  promptly  emigrate  with  the  Christian  Indians  to 
the  Sandusky  River,  were  the  missionaries  set  at  liberty.  With  sorrowful 
hearts  the  little  persecuted  band  looked  back  at  the  wasting  of  their  dwell 
ing-place  on  the  Muskingum,  where  the  grace  of  God  had  been  so  richly 
shown  them,  and  the  gospel  had  made  so  blessed  a  progress,  and  arrived 
after  an  endlessly  painful  and  perilous  roaming  of  four  weeks  on  the 
southwest  bank  of  Lake  Erie.  Here  a  place  of  dwelling  zeisberger  by 
had  been  assigned  them  by  the  British  commandant.  It  Lake  Erie. 
was  sterile  and  inhospitable.  Winter  was  at  the  door.  Yet  the  perse- 
cuted band  did  not  lose  courage  or  cast  away  hope. 


794  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Soon  the  missionaries  were  summoned  to  Detroit  before  the  British 
governor  to  answer  accusations.  With  three  associates  Zeisberger,  in 
this  inclement  season,  had  to  undertake  the  laborious  journey.  Benumbed 
by  cold,  tormented  by  hunger,  with  clothing  rent  and  soiled,  carrying 
their  luggage  upon  their  backs,  the  messengers  of  Christ  entered  Detroit. 
They  had  to  wait  for  hours  before  the  governor's  door.  They  were  then 
directed  to  a  French  family,  by  whom  they  were  kindly  entertained. 

An  Indian  chief  named  Pipe  was  set  up  by  the  governor  as  Zeisber- 
ger's  accuser.  He  came  into  court,  carrying  in  his  left  hand  a  stake, 
upon  which  were  two  human  scalps  all  bloody ;  but  he  and  his  comrades 
failed  in  the  work  of  accusation.  He  explained  rather  that  the  mis- 
sionaries were  good  men.  The  father  (the  governor)  should  speak  good 
words  to  them.  The  missionaries  were  acquitted  by  the  governor,  and 
assured  by  him  that  their  Christian  labors  pleased  him.  They  were  al- 
lowed to  return  to  their  people,  were  supplied  with  clothes  and  other  nec- 
essaries, and  told  that  a  door  of  welcome  would  ever  be  open  to  them. 

The  much-tried  men  gladly  turned  to  their  abode  on  Lake  Erie.  Deep 
distress  was  soon  after  experienced.  The  cold  had  greatly  increased. 
Their  provisions  were  almost  exhausted.  They  were  in  danger  of  dying 
from  the  rigors  of  the  climate.  Some  of  their  number  were  sent  off  to 
their  former  home  on  the  Muskingum  to  collect  some  grain  left  there, 
and  to  bring  it.  They  fulfilled  their  errand,  and  were  returning  when  an 
American  scoutmg  party  of  several  hundred  white  men  made  their  appear- 
ance. The  Indians,  since  they  were  peaceful,  thought  that  they  had 
nothing  to  fear.  The  whites  seeming  friendly,  the  Indians  joined  their 
ranks.  But  scarcely  had  they  approached  when  the  others  claimed  them 
as  prisoners,  and  bade  them  prepare  within  a  few  hours  to  die.  In  Chris- 
tian resignation  the  Indians  asked  one  another's  forgiveness  for  wrongs 
which  they  perchance  had  done ;  then  kneeled  down  and  prayed  fer- 
vently together.  Resolutely  they  said  to  the  inhuman  mob,  "  We  have 
commended  our  spirits  to  God,  and  He  has  given  us  firm  confidence  of 
heart  that  He  by  his  grace  will  receive  us  into  his  heavenly  kingdom." 
Thereupon  a  daring  villain  snatched  up  a  heavy  hammer,  and  dashed  in 
the  skulls  of  fourteen  of  them.  He  reached  the  hammer  to  another  with 
the  words,  "  My  arm  gives  out,  do  you  make  haste."  And  so  were  miser- 
ably slain  ninety  poor  victims,  reddening  with  their  martyr-blood  the  earth. 
A  few  only  escaped  to  carry  the  news  of  this  act  of  infamy  to  their 
brethren.  The  heathen  Indians,  stirred  deeply  by  this  horrible  murder, 
swore  bloody  revenge,  which  they  also  took.  To  Zeisberger  it  was  the 
heaviest  blow  that  ever  befell  him. 

Meantime  the  British  governor  had  assigned  the  missionaries  a  suitable 
Zeisberger  lives  ti'act  of  land  ou  Lake  Huron,  for  their  settlement.  The 
m  Michigan.  gospel  there  found  an  entrance  into  the  surrounding  tribes, 
the  savage  Hurons  and  Chippewas.     The  hostility  of  the  Huron  chiefs 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        DA  VI D  ZEISBERGER.  795 

prevented,  however,  the  secure  carrying  on  of  these  mission  efforts. 
When,  therefore,  the  American  Congress,  at  the  making  of  peace  vrith 
the  Indians,  expressly  reserved  for  the  Christian  converts  the  lands  on 
the  Muskingum  possessed  by  them  before,  Zeisberger  with  his  entire 
community,  which  had  again  increased  to  the  number  of  three  hundred 
or  four  hundred  souls,  decided  to  emigrate  to  the  old  loved  residence. 
Twelve  years  lasted  the  journey,  which  was  hindered  now  by  the  fury  of 
the  elements,  now  by  disturbances  breaking  out  anew.  At  last  it  was 
permitted  our  hero,  the  old  man  of  seventy-six,  after  seventeen  years' 
absence  to  set  foot  again  upon  the  place  of  his  love  and  his  longing.  He 
now  called  it  Goshen,  because  he  viewed  it  as  the  preparation  place  for  his 
heavenly  Canaan.  There,  in  unbroken  peace,  he  lived  from  this  time  on, 
honored  and  beloved  of  the  poor  Indians  whose  souls  he  had  won  for 
Christ,  a  teacher  and  model  also  for  the  younger  missionaries. 

Gently,  yet  perceptibly,  the  marks  of  an  advanced  old  age  came  upon 
him.  First,  his  feet  refused  him  service,  a  sore  trial  to  one  who  was 
accustomed  by  their  help  to  carry  about  the  bread  of  life.  He  yet  had 
strength  at  eighty-seven  to  exchange  letters  with  distant  friends,  and  to 
undertake  corrections  of  his  writings  upon  the  Onondaga  and  Delaware 
languages.  At  last  he  could  not  do  even  this.  He  became  blind.  Kow 
he  could  only  from  his  adoring  heart  exercise  his  mind  upon  the  manifold 
grace  of  God  which  he  had  experienced  in  his  eventful  pilgrimage. 

In  October  of  1808  he  felt  that  the  end  was  nigh.  His  sickness  was 
painless.  But  one  thing  caused  him  unrest,  the  spiritual  ciosino-  days  in 
condition  of  the  Indians.  His  children  in  Christ,  clinging  to  ^^^'  o^'°- 
him  so  fervently,  entered  in  small  companies  to  his  couch.  "  Father," 
they  said,  "  forgive  us  everything  whereby  we  have  caused  thee  pain. 
We  will  yield  our  hearts  to  the  Saviour,  and  live  for  Him  only  in  the 
world."  The  venerable  man  believed,  exhorted,  and  blessed  them.  "  I 
now  depart  to  rest  from  all  my  labor,  and  to  be  at  home  with  the  Lord. 
He  has  never  yet  left  me  in  need,  and  now,  too.  He  will  not  fail  me.  I 
have  reviewed  my  whole  course  of  life,  and  have  found  that  there  is 
much  here  to  be  forgiven."  After  a  silent  prayer,  he  exclaimed,  "  The 
Saviour  is  near.  He  will  speedily  come  to  bear  me  home."  In  the 
midst  of  the  singing  of  spiritual  melodies  which  the  Indians  began,  he 
gave  up  his  spirit. 

Zeisberger  lived  to  almost  eighty-eight.  Sixty -seven  years  he  devoted 
with  marvelous  love,  perseverance,  and  power  to  his  ministry  among  the 
Indians.  By  his  natural  gifts,  by  his  acquirements  in  the  speech  of  the 
Indians,  by  the  great  influence  he  gained  among  them,  by  his  decided  and 
energetic  disposition,  fitting  him  to  rule,  he  could  easily  have  controlled 
the  Indian  tribes,  and,  by  taking  part  in  the  war,  have  won  fame  and 
power.  He  preferred  the  quiet  triumphs  of  the  gospel,  amid  peculiar 
poverty  and  obscurity. 


796  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

By  the  love  of  Christ  which  moved  him,  by  the  power  of  the  Word, 
by  zeal  and  courage,  by  self-denial  and  endurance,  he  became  a  truly 
apostolic  character.  As  we  look  over  the  results  of  his  preaching  the 
gospel  to  the  unfortunate  Indian  folk,  the  sorrowful  question  forces  itself 
upon  us :  Were  these  poor  aborigines  of  the  New  World  so  utterly  un- 
fitted for  civilization  through  Christianity  and  religious  training  ?  Or 
weighs  not  their  destruction  as  a  sore  crime  on  the  soul  of  European 
Christian  humanity  ?  —  K.  F. 


LIFE   XXXIII.     CHRISTIAN   FREDEEIC   SCHWARTZ. 

A.  D.  1726-A.  D.  1798.        LUTHERAN,  —  INDIA. 

This  German  name,  with  its  memories,  takes  us  away  to  the  East 
Indies,  that  ancient  land  of  wonders  in  nature  and  in  art.  Since  the 
year  1000,  its  allurements  and  treasures  have  stirred  blood-stained  con- 
querors and  greedy  merchants  from  western  lands  to  every  art  of  deceit 
and  violence.  It  was  also  to  learn  from  those  lands  how  beautiful  upon 
its  noble  mountains  and  over  its  fertile  valleys  "  are  the  feet  of  him 
that  briiigeth  good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace ;  that  bringeth  good 
tidings  of  good,  that  publisheth  salvation ;  that  saith  unto  Zion,  Thy  God 
reigneth."  The  Apostle  Thomas,  Christian  tradition  says,  was  the  first 
apostle  of  the  Indies.  From  him  the  "  Syrian "  Christians,  who  were 
found  by  the  Portuguese  explorers  upon  the  coast  of  Malabar,  traced 
their  descent.  It  appears  certain,  that  for  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years  there  existed  along  the  coast,  from  the  northern  extremity  of  India 
up  to  Malabar,  a  Christian  church  in  the  midst  of  the  heathen.  It  re- 
ceived its  bishops  from  the  patriarchs  of  Babylon  and  Antioch,  until  the' 
Portuguese  and  Jesuits  (1599)  brought  them  by  their  artifices  under  the 
Church  of  Rome,  which  was  before  unknown  to  them.  Christian  Arme- 
nians, too,  were  early  found  doing  business  as  merchants  in  India.  Rome 
and  her  Jesuits,  led  by  Francis  Xavier,  a  great  man  of  his  kind,  "  con- 
verted" the  Hindoos  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  to  the  papal  church. 
They  adopted  the  garments,  manners,  and  customs  of  the  pagan  priests 
in  order  to  achieve  their  end  the  more  easily.  The  Portuguese  were  com- 
pelled to  give  way  to  the  Dutch.  But  these,  too,  used  secular  means  to 
make  Protestants  of  the  people  rapidly  and  superficially.  The  seed  of 
the  life  everlasting  was  not  sown. 

A  genuine  gospel  mission  was  begun  in  India  for  the  first  time  through 
Modern  missions  '^^  '^g^^cy  of  Frederick  Fourth,  king  of  Denmark,  when 
in  India.  that  nation  obtained  from  the  rajah  of  Tanjore  the  city  of 

Tranquebar,  upon  the  eastern  coast.    Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg,  a  German, 
was  recommended  by  August  Francke,  of  Halle,  to  conduct  a  mission 


Cent.  XYIL-XIX.]     CHRISTIAN  FREDERIC  SCHWARTZ.      797 

in  that  territory.  Supported  by  Denmark,  Halle,  and  England,  he  per- 
formed great  labors  there  from  1706  until  1718.  His  work  was  further 
carried  on  by  Schultz,  who  completed  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Tamil,  which  had  been  commenced  by  Ziegenbalg.  After  1740  it  was 
aided  by  Fabricius.  Between  1 706  and  1750  some  eight  thousand  souls  — 
Hindoo,  Moslem,  and  Romanist  —  were  brought  to  the  evangelical  faith. 
This  success  gave  encouragement  for  pushing  the  work  forward.  A  new 
instrument  for  this  end  was  already  chosen  of  God  in  Germany.  By  him 
the  object  sacred  to  the  friends  of  Christianity  in  England,  Denmark,  and 
Germany  was  to  be  promoted  in  a  most  blessed  way  through  almost  half 
a  centui-y,  and  through  the  period  of  the  first  triumphant  advance  of  the 
British  flag  in  that  large  population  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions. 
His  name  was  Christian  Frederic  Schwartz. 

He  was  born  October  26,  1726,  at  Sonnenburg,  in  Prussia.  His  parents 
were  persons  of  estimation.  His  mother,  dying  when  he  was  a  child, 
consecrated  him  to  the  service  of  God.  The  excellent  teacher  of  the 
Latin  school  in  his  town  trained  the  boy  early  to  the  fear  of  God,  and  to 
silent  prayer.  Christian  would  often  go  away  from  his  comrades  to  a 
solitary  place  to  seek  of  God  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins.  The  father,  an 
intelligent  and  devout  man,  strictly  exhorting  his  son  to  be  sincere  and 
self-denying,  went  with  him  on  foot  to  the  high  school  at  Kiistrin,  where 
Christian  became  a  diligent  student,  though  chiefly  with  a  view  to  secular 
ends.  The  impressive  sermons  of  Pastor  Stegmann  counterbalanced  the 
influence  of  frivolous  companions.  The  family,  especially  the  daughters, 
of  a  lawyer  who  was  a  friend  of  the  leaders  of  the  University  of  Halle, 
directed  the  youth  to  religion  and  to  reading  of  a  beneficial  kind.  He 
was  attracted  especially  to  August  Francke's  "  Blessed  Footprints  of  the 
Living  and  Almighty  Creator  "  (as  these  were  seen  in  the  work  of  his 
famous  Orphan  House  in  Halle.  See  page  464).  At  two  different  times, 
when  attacked  by  serious  illness,  Christian  resolved  to  give  himself  en- 
tirely to  God.  His  good  resolutions  were,  however,  not  yet  firmly  estab- 
lished. When  twenty  years  old  he  went  to  Halle  University.  Elected 
as  a  teacher  of  the  Orphan  House,  he  was  strengthened  in  mind  by  the 
evening  prayers  which  he  was  asked  to  conduct,  and  by  the  devotional 
meetings,  led  by  Pastor  "Weiss.  He  now  was  enabled,  with  help  from 
Francke,  to  resolve  to  live  wholly  for  God.  The  text  of  his  first  sermon, 
"  Master,  ....  at  thy  word  I  will  let  down  the  net,"  was  in  harmony 
with  the  profound  humility  of  soul  and  childlike  trust  in  God's  Word 
which  he  afterwards  exhibited. 

The  youth  was  at  this  time  led  by  Schultz,  the  missionary,  who  was 
then  putting  through  the  press  at  Halle  the  Bible  in  Tamil, 
to  engage  in  the  study  of  this  southern  Indian  language.   Haiie;  becomes 
Little  by  little  Christian  entertained  the  thought  of  becom-   ^  ^'ssionary. 
ing  a  missionary.     He  heard  with  pleasure  that  Francke  was  looking 


798  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

about  among  the  students  for  new  recruits  for  the  Indian  mission.  The 
resolve  was  awakened  within  him  to  offer  himself  for  the  work,  if  he 
could  gain  his  father's  consent.  The  elder  Schwartz  had  different  plans 
for  his  first-born.  Yet  after  brief  reflection  he  yielded,  contrary  to  gen- 
eral expectation,  and  gave  to  his  son,  who  had  come  to  entreat  him,  his 
blessing,  bidding  him  in  God's  name  to  forget  the  father's  house  and  the 
fatherland,  and  to  go  and  bring  souls  to  Christ  in  the  far-off  country. 

Schwartz  came  back  with  joy  to  Halle,  having  resigned  magnani- 
mously all  claim  to  his  patrimony  in  favor  of  his  brothers  and  sisters. 
A  few  days  after  this  he  was  offered  a  lucrative  pastorate  in  Germany. 
But  he  had  put  his  hand  to  the  plow,  and  would  not  look  back.  He 
was  ordained  in  September,  1749,  with  two  others,  in  the  Lutheran  con- 
sistory at  Copenhagen.  In  December,  he  went  over  to  London,  and  by 
February  1,  1750,  was  ready  to  sail.  For  a  whole  month  his  ship  was 
kept  in  the  harbor  of  Falmouth  by  adverse  winds.  Other  ships,  which 
were  at  that  time  on  the  open  sea,  were  in  many  cases  wrecked.  Schwartz 
recognized  the  first  of  his  deliverances  from  danger.  He  was  enabled  to 
overcome  seasickness  and  a  severe  attack  of  fever.  He  passed  the  months 
in  study  of  the  Scriptures,  in  other  useful  studies,  and  in  prayer,  till,  on 
July  17th,  he  saw  the  coast  of  Cuddalore  lying  before  him  in  all  its  glory. 
Not  long  after  he  had  landed,  his  ship  went  down  in  a  tempest.  Schwartz 
and  his  comrades,  in  excellent  health,  i-eached  Tranquebar  July  30th,  and 
were  heartily  received  by  the  brethren.  He  there  acquired  the  Tamil  so 
rapidly  that  he  was  able  in  four  months  to  preach  his  first  sermon  in  the 
language  in  the  church  of  Ziegenbalg.  He  plunged  into  his  work.  He 
began  simple  catechetical  lessons  with  the  youngest  children  in  the  Tamil 
and  Portuguese  schools.  He  carefully  instructed  two  classes  of  candi- 
dates for  church  membership.  The  same  year  he  introduced  four  hun- 
dred of  these  inquirers  into  the  church  through  baptism.  He  addressed 
himself  immediately  afterwards  to  those  journeyings  which  he  so  long 
continued  throughout  all  southeast  India  as  far  as  Ceylon.  He  published 
the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  among  Hindoos,  Moslems,  and  Christians,  in 
city  and  in  country,  to  friend  and  to  foe,  in  cold  and  in  heat,  in  war  and 
in  peace,  day  and  night,  with  a  thousand-fold  return  of  blessed  results. 

There  we  behold  Schwartz  sitting  and  teaching  onfe  day  under  the 
shadow  of  a  majestic  banyan  of  seventy  paces  circumference ;  another 
day  under  a  little  hut  builded  by  himself  of  the  leaves  of  the  palm-tree  ; 
now  upon  a  turf  seat  by  the  wayside,  now  in  front  of  a  pagoda,  chafing 
in  spirit  at  the  wild  excesses  of  superstition,  while  he  addresses  the  de- 
luded devotees  in  friendly  way,  adjuring  them,  "  not  as  contemned,  but  as 
brothers,  children  of  a  common  Father,"  to  think  upon  making  their 
peace  with  God !  Again  we  hear  him  speaking  upon  the  rampart  of  a 
fortress,  amid  the  whirling  clouds  of  dust,  of  repentance  and  of  belief  in 
the  Lord,  or  singing  in  the  palace  of  a  mighty  prince,  whom  he  wins  by 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     CHRISTIAN  FREDERIC  SCHWARTZ.     799 

his  Christian  friendliness  and  frankness  of  address,  the  German  hymn, 
"  My  God,  to  Thee  my  heart  I  give."  Again  he  is  standing  at  a  thresh- 
ing-floor, speaking  to  the  natives  busied  in  threshing  out  their  rice,  or  is 
teacliing  the  keeper  of  a  garden  to  cultivate  spiritual  fruit,  or  he  is  in  the 
hospital  with  the  sick,  or  with  the  Brahmins  on  the  bank  of  the  sacred 
river,  in  the  city  gate,  in  front  of  the  great  mosque  of  the  Moslems,  or 
among  the  wounded  in  the  English  camp,  where  he  hears  an  English  sol- 
dier, who  has  followed  his  flag  thirty-two  years,  in  reply  to  the  question, 
"  How  long  hast  thou  followed  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ?"  answer,  "I  have 
not  yet  entered  his  service."  To-day  Schwartz  is  on  shipboard,  and  Mos- 
lem sailors  listen  to  his  stories  of  the  life  of  Christ.  To-morrow  he  is 
among  Romanists,  and  they  lend  an  ear  to  the  man  of  peace.  A  prom- 
inent Hindoo,  in  conversing  with  him,  said,  "  Thou  art  a  priest  of  God 
to  all  kinds  of  people."  He  did  indeed  contrive,  as  did  Paul,  to  be  made 
all  things  to  all  men,  that  he  might  by  all  means  save  some. 

The  talents  of  Schwartz  for  mission  work  were  so  evident  from  the 
beginning  that  he  was  soon  intrusted  with  the  oversight  and 
leadership  of  all  the  Christian  congregations  and  schools  of  missions  in 
south  of  the  River  Carery.  Amid  the  noise  of  the  war 
that  was  raging  between  England  and  France,  he  pushed  on  his  work 
in  and  around  Tranquebar.  The  pagans  in  many  places  received  him 
with  marked  respect,  and  of  their  own  accord  contributed  toward  his  sup- 
port. But  the  Danish  colony  of  Tranquebar  was  too  narrow  a  place  for 
his  eflTorts.  He  went  on  foot,  a  friend  with  him,  to  the  populous  city 
of  Tanjore,  and  there  obtained  leave  to  preach  the  gospel  in  the  palace 
of  the  prince.  Aided  by  British  officers  he  builded  in  the  great  city  of 
Trichinopoli  a  chapel  and  a  school  as  the  beginning  of  a  station.  In 
the  year  1766  this  charming  and  well-situated  place  was  made  his  espe- 
cial field  of  labor.  Only  eternity  can  unfold  all  the  work  done  by  him 
here  or  from  here  as  a  centre,  all  that  he  became  to  natives  and  Eu- 
ropeans, from  Madura  and  Madras,  even  to  Tinnevelly,  attracting  co- 
laborers  to  him  and  imparting  blessing  to  all  ages  and  classes.  His  cor- 
dial nature,  his  affable  address,  his  stores  of  information,  his  eloquence 
upon  both  religious  and  worldly  matters,  was  for  decades  afterwards  a 
delightful  remembrance  in  the  minds  of  those  who  met  him.  One  man, 
who  had  been  greatly  prejudiced  against  Schwartz,  furnished,  after  years 
of  acquaintance  and  friendship,  the  following  description  :  "  The  very 
first  sight  of  the  man  made  it  necessary  to  lay  aside  prejudices.  His 
clothing  was  generally  px'etty  well  worn,  and  out  of  the  fashion.  His 
form  was  above  the  average  in  height,  well  built,  erect,  and  unassuming 
in  its  carriage ;  his  complexion  dark  but  wholesome,  his  hair  black  and 
curly,  his  look  full  of  strength  and  manliness,  gleaming  with  sincere 
modesty,  straightforwardness,  and  benevolence.  You  may  conceive  the 
impression  which  even  the  first  sight  of  Schwartz  would  make  upon  the 


800  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

minds  of  strangers."  When  he  had  fully  mastered  the  copious,  difficult 
language  of  the  ancient  intellectual  and  wealthy  Tamil  folk,  he  for  five 
years  studied  thoroughly  their  entire  mythology  and  literature,  which 
proved  incalculably  useful  to  him  in  instructing  and  convincing  the  peo- 
ple of  Malabar.  He  also  acquired  the  Portuguese  at  Tranquebar,  so  that 
he  might  approach  the  large  numbers  of  this  nation  scattered  over  India. 
In  Trichinopoli,  where  Schwartz  was  cut  off  from  all  outside  society, 
except  for  a  time  that  of  the  missionary  Dame  in  Tanjore,  he  accom- 
plished a  great  deal  with  but  very  small  means.  Content  with  an  apart- 
ment in  an  old  Hindoo  edifice,  in  which  there  was  enough  room  for  him- 
self and  his  bed,  he  accepted  with  a  cheerful  countenance  as  his  daily 
bill  of  fare  a  dish  of  boiled  rice  with  a  few  vegetables.  A  piece  of  dark 
cotton  cloth,  woven  and  cut  after  the  fashion  of  the  country,  was  the 
■clothing  of  his  body  the  year  through.  Free  from  every  care  of  earth, 
his  only  wish  was  to  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist  among  the  poor  Hin- 
doos. The  catechists,  whom  he  raised  up  from  among  them,  ate  at  his 
table,  supported  out  of  his  yearly  income  of  six  hundred  guilders.  The 
great  English  garrison  of  Trichinopoli  having  no  religious  instruction 
or  worship,  Schwartz  became  interested  in  them.  It  must  astonish  every 
one  who  knows  the  English  soldiery  in  India,  to  know  that  the  mission- 
ary succeeded  in  winning  over  the  entire  force  to  the  side  of  the  gospel. 
At  first  he  gathered  them  to  public  w^orship  in  an  old  out-building.  But 
they  soon  decided  that  they  could  afford  a  part  of  their  j^ay  to  erect  a 
church  edifice.  Only  a  man  like  Schwartz  could,  with  the  small  sum 
given  him,  have  erected  a  beautiful,  lofty,  roomy  structure.  Besides,  he 
builded  a  mission-house  and  an  English  and  Tamil  school,  to  which  he 
applied  the  year's  pay  given  him  as  chaplain  of  the  garrison  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  Madras.  He  declined  a  considerable  legacy  left  him  by  an 
officer  to  whom  he  had  imparted  religious  instruction.  He  refused  the 
jjresents  of  the  prince  of  Tanjore.  For  a  missionary  must  show  under 
all  circumstances  that  selfish  ends  do  not  control  him  in  his  labors  for  the 
gospel. 

Schwartz  enjoyed  good  health  the  most  of  the  time  in  this  torrid  coun- 
try. The  peace  of  heart  which  won  him  no  boisterous  delights,  but  a 
quiet,  profound,  constant  joy,  upheld  and  strengthened  his  body  as  it  grew 
old.  Under  the  Almighty's  protection,  he  again  and  again  was  saved 
from  great  peril.  Once,  for  example,  when  he  had  risen  before  daylight, 
he  sat  down  near  a  very  venomous  serpent,  but  was  not  touched  by  it. 
At  another  time  (1772),  when  the  powder  magazine  of  the  fortress  blew 
up  and  the  ground  was  strewn  with  ruins  and  with  dead  bodies,  he  with 
his  catechists,  pupils,  and  church  members  remained  unharmed.  It  was 
to  be  expected  that  Schwartz  should  turn  to  Christ  thousands  of  people, 
tender  children,  rough  soldiers,  gentle  youths,  and  hoary  old  men.  He 
was  found  everywhere  with  comfort  and  aid,  hastening  to  the  wounded 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     CHRISTIAN  FREDERIC  SCHWARTZ.     801 

and  sick  in  body  or  in  soul,  and  that  in  trying  times  and  amid  the  terrible 
devastations  of  war.  In  Trichinopoli  he  lived  to  see  how  first  twenty 
and  then  thirty  soldiers  covenanted  to  give  themselves  truly  to  Christ, 
and  then  supported  their  spiritual  father  by  visits  to  the  sick,  but  espe- 
cially by  an  upright  life  among  the  heathen.  After  the  year  jjj^  ^^^^^  j^ 
1778,  Schwartz  made  his  permanent  residence  in  Tanjore.  Tanjore. 
This  city,  built  on  what  was  counted  holy  ground,  was  a  favorite  abode  of 
Hindoos,  and  was  adorned  with  the  most  splendid  pagoda  in  India,  as  well 
as  with  the  wealthiest  pagan  institutions.  Befoi'e  this  period  Schwartz, 
from  his  knowledge  of  the  language  and  public  affairs  of  the  country,  and 
also  from  his  disintei'estedness  and  courage,  had  been  made  a  mediator 
between  the  English  government  and  the  pagan  princes.  He  was  now 
most  respectfully  solicited  by  the  English  to  go  (1779)  on  an  embassy  to 
the  rude  conqueror,  Hyder  Ali  of  Mysore.  Schwartz  turned  the  journey 
to  Seriugapatam  to  account  everywhere,  preaching  peace  through  Jesus 
Christ.  At  the  court  of  the  terrible  foe  of  the  English,  he  immediately 
won  the  public  confidence.  When,  upon  his  return,  a  present  of  money 
was  forced  upon  him  by  Hyder  Ali,  he  gave  it  to  the  English  govern- 
ment. When  he  was  bidden  keep  it,  he  asked  that  it  should  be  appro- 
priated to  the  building  of  an  English  orphan  asylum  in  Tanjore.  He 
also  builded  a  church  in  that  city  for  the  Tamil  congregation.  When 
Hyder  Ali,  deceived  and  enraged  by  the  British,  ravaged  with  an  army 
of  one  hundred  thousand  men  the  province  of  the  Carnatik,  bringing  all 
the  horrors  of  war,  famine,  and  death  upon  the  field  of  Schwartz's  labors, 
the  latter  proved  himself  an  angel  of  deliverance  to  both  soldiers  and 
citizens.  For  seventeen  months  more  than  eight  hundred  hungry  people 
came  every  day  to  his  door.  He  collected  money,  pi-epared  and  distrib- 
uted provisions  to  both  Europeans  and  Hindoos,  at  the  same  time  seeking 
to  administer  to  them  spiritual  consolation.  Such  an  impression  had  been 
made  by  him  personally  upon  the  terrible  Hyder  Ali,  that  the  latter,  amid 
his  bloody  victories,  gave  the  strictest  orders  td  his  ofiicers  "  to  suffer  the 
venerable  Father  Schwartz  to  go  about  everywhere  without  hindrance, 
and  to  show  him  all  kindness,  since  he  is  a  holy  man,  and  will  not  injure 
me."  Thus  "  the  good  father,"  as  the  pagans  called  him,  could  continue 
his  peaceful  seed-sowing  among  the  hostile  camps  which  had  spread  over 
the  whole  country.  It  was  his  intercession  which  protected  the  city  of 
Cuddalore,  in  the  face  of  the  savage  hosts  of  the  enemy. 

Schwartz  was  chosen  by  the  English  government  (1785)  a  member  of 
the  council  of  administration  for  Tanjoi'e.  For  his  noble  services  in  this 
office  he  was  granted  a  British  pension  of  one  hundred  pounds  annually. 
When  the  old  prince  of  Tanjore  was  given  an  heir  to  his  crown,  Schwartz 
was  proffered  the  guardianship  of  the  prince.  He  declined,  naming  in- 
stead the  father's  brother,  Ameer  Sing.  The  latter,  in  acknowledgment, 
gave  him  the  revenues  of  a  village  for  his  Christian  schools  and  orphan 
51 


802  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

children.    When   Ameer  Sing  behaved  badly   towards   Sersudscha,  the 
crown  prince,  Schwartz  was  obliged  to  become  guardian,  and 

Guardian  of  the  ,  .       ,  n     i     «-  •         /.    i  tt 

prince  of  Tan-  to  take  a  large  snare  in  the  unsettled  anairs  oi  the  state.  He 
^°^^'  brought  about  an  improvement  in  the  administration  of  law 

and  of  finance,  and  an  increase  of  the  revenues.  He  was  surrounded  from 
morning  till  night  by  natives  of  every  condition,  whose  disputes  he  settled  ; 
by  needy  widows,  whom  he  employed  in  spinning  and  in  other  labor ;  by 
poor  girls,  who  did  knitting  while  he  instructed  them ;  by  young  catechists 
and  missionaries,  to  whom  he  gave  wise  counsels.  Besides  all  this,  he 
engaged  in  preaching  and  in  founding  and  conducting  the  schools  of  the 
province,  the  means  for  which  he  received  from  the  old  rajah  of  Tanjore, 
whose  confidence  he  retained  undiminished  through  a  space  of  thirty  years. 
Thus  Schwartz  at  seventy  years  of  age  remained  in  his  full  strength, 
a  German  oak  in  the  land  of  the  palm.  His  position  grew  ever  more 
lonely ;  his  old  friends  were  gone ;  he  was  forewarned  of  his  departure 
through  a  disease  of  the  feet.  Schwartz  had  remained  unmarried  (would 
that  other  missionaries  could  consent  to  forego  marriage,  at  least  at  the 
start),  and  yet  was  most  thoroughly  adapted  by  his  social,  loving  nature 
to  enjoy  the  married  life.  He  was  prostrated  for  three  months  by  a  pain- 
ful sickness  connected  with  the  trouble  in  his  feet,  and  was  thus  prepared 
for  the  end  of  life.  Still  he  was  able  to  join  with  strong  voice  in  the 
hymn,  "  Christ  is  my  Life,"  and  to  say  that  he  was  ready  either  for 
further  labor  or  for  a  speedy  departure.  He  submitted  everything  to  the 
will  of  God.  He  commended  his  spirit  to  Him  who  had  redeemed  him. 
Then  singing,  in  concert  with  his  brethren  about  him,  the  hymn,  "  O 
Dies  while  sing-  Sacred  Head  now  "Wounded,"  with  head  erect  and  lips 
'°s-  oj^en,  he  expired  in  the  arms  of  a  faithful  and  affectionate 

native  assistant,  at  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  February  13,  1798. 
The  court  of  his  home  resounded  with  loud  weeping,  when  the  people 
gathered  there  heard  of  the  death  of  their  comforter  and  fathei".  Prince 
Sersudscha  hastened  thither  to  behold  the  form  of  his  loved  guardian. 
At  the  grave  the  sobs  of  the  multitude  hindered  the  singing  of  the  burial 
hymn.  The  prince  erected  in  the  city  where  he  lived  a  marble  monu- 
ment "  to  the  revered  Father  Schwartz."  Upon  a  granite  tablet  in  the 
chapel  of  the  mission  he  placed  also  an  inscription  in  English  verses, 
praising  his  "  father"  and  expressing  a  desire  to  be  worthy  of  him.  In 
later  years  the  i^rince,  though  lacking  courage  to  become  a  Christian,  en- 
deavored to  honor  the  memory  of  the  deceased  missionary  by  pious  insti- 
tutions for  the  young  and  the  sick.  The  East  India  Company  in  1807 
erected  a  monument  to  the  patriarch  of  Christian  missions  in  Hindostan, 
in  St.  Mary's  Church  of  Fort  George  at  Madras.  But  the  most  precious 
memorial  of  his  work  for  the  missions  in  Southern  India,  to  which  he  left 
all  his  property,  was  the  multitude  whom  he  led  to  a  Christian  life,  and 
the   company  of  valiant  men  whom  he  trained  to  carry  on   the  work. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]    JOHN   THEODOSIUS   VANDERKEMP.        803 

When  Gericke  as  missionary  went  to  South  India  in  1803,  he  saw  the 
fruits  of  the  seeds  sown  by  Schwartz.  Whole  villages  came  to  him  for 
instruction.  He  baptized  thirteen  hundred  pagans,  while  his  catechists 
formed  eighteen  churches,  and  baptized  twenty-seven  hundred  persons. 
There  have  since  been  found,  in  sixty-two  villages  surrounding  a  church 
erected  by  a  Hindoo  woman  whom  Schwartz  baptized,  more  than  four 
thousand  Hindoo  Christians.  —  H.  VM. 


LIFE   XXXIV.     JOHN   THEODOSIUS    VANDERKEMP. 

A.    D.    1747-A.    D.    1811.       REFORMED, AFRICA. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  great  interest  began  to  be  awak- 
ened in  England  in  mission  work  among  the  heathen.  This  led  to  the 
forming  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  in  1795.  Their  first  efforts 
were  directed  to  one  of  the  South  Sea  Islands.  Their  attention,  how- 
ever, was  soon  turned  to  South  Africa.  But  how  and  where  could  they 
find  a  suitable  man  to  lead  the  way  into  those  trackless  wilds,  and  under- 
take to  introduce  the  gospel  to  the  most  barbarous  and  degraded  of  human 
beings  ?  While  the  directors  of  the  society  were  asking  this  question, 
the  Lord  was  preparing  an  answer  by  raising  up  for  them,  in  the  person 
of  John  Theodosius  Vanderkemp,  of  Holland,  a  pioneer  who  should  be 
worthy  of  the  grand  and  Christlike  enterprise  they  had  in  mind. 

He  was  born  in  1747,  at  Rotterdam,  where  his  father  was  a  minister 
of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church.  For  the  first  five  years  of  a  liberal 
training,  John  went  to  the  university  in  Leyden.     He  then 

T      1  1    /.         •  1     ■*■'!  army  officer. 

entered  the  army,  where  he  served  for  sixteen  years,  and 
rose  to  be  captain  of  horse  and  lieutenant  of  the  dragoon  guards.  Leav- 
ing this  service,  he  went  to  Edinburgh  to  pursue  his  studies  in  the  univer- 
sity there.  Thus  helped  he  became  distinguished  in  the  study  of  philos- 
ophy, chemistry,  indeed  in  all  the  sciences,  and  made  himself  acquainted 
not  only  with  the  ancient  classics  but  also  with  many  of  the  best  lan- 
guages of  modern  Europe.  Returning  from  Scotland,  he  entered  upon  the 
practice  of  medicine,  wherein  he  rose  to  great  repute  and  esteem.  From 
this  time  on,  the  hand  of  the  Lord  becomes  more  manifest  in  preparing 
the  way  for  his  entering  upon  one  of  the  most  arduous  and  self-denying 
enterprises  to  which,  in  those  days,  man  could  be  called. 

During  his  studies,  though  a  member  of  the  church  of  his  fathers,  he 
became  much  tinctured  in  mind  with  infidelity.  Having  come  now  to 
maturity  of  years,  he  retired  with  his  wife  and  only  child  to  a  residence 
in  the  country,  where  he  sometimes  amused  himself  in  sailing  with  his 
family  on  the  river.  On  one  of  these  occasions  a  sudden  storm  burst 
upon  them,  upset  the  boat,  and  left  only  himself  to  be  barely  rescued 


804  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

from  the  watery  grave  into  which  his  two  nearest  relatives  sunk  to  rise 
no  more.  His  faith  in  infidel  sentiments  was  now  shaken ;  he  got  new 
views  of  Christ,  and  heartily  embraced  the  entire  gospel  system. 

Being  now  called  to  the  charge  of  a  large  hospital,  during  a  war  with 
France,  he  ministered  alike  to  the  bodies  and  the  souls  of  his  patients, 
with  great  acceptance  and  success.  The  sick  esteemed  him  as  their  father, 
and  the  servants  obeyed  as  children.  The  hospital  closing  at  the  end 
of  the  war,  he  began  to  lead  a  retired  life  and  devote  himself  to  his 
Oriental  studies,  and  to  the  completing  of  a  commentary  he  was  writing 
on  the  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Romans. 

In  this  way  was  the  Lord  raising  up  one  who,  by  great  firmness  of  char- 
acter, distinguished  talents,  much  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  eminent 
attainments  in  general  culture  and  religious  experience,  should  have  his 
soul  kindled  to  a  glow  with  a  desire  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  cross  in 
one  of  the  wildest,  darkest  parts  of  the  earth.  Reading  an  address  which 
the  London  Missionary  Society  had  put  out,  he  became  deej^ly  interested 
At  fifty  called  ^^  ^^  subject  of  missions.  Parts  of  the  address  made  such 
to  his  hfe-work.  qj^  impression  upon  his  mind  that  he  fell  upon  his  knees 
and  cried,  "  Here  am  I,  Lord  Jesus ;  Thou  knowest  that  I  have  no  will 
of  my  own,  since  I  gave  myself  to  Thee."  And  again  he  says  :  "  I  heard 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  saying,  '  Whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for 
us  ?  '     Then  said  I,  '  Here  am  I,  Lord,  send  me.'  " 

He  wrote  to  the  directors  of  the  society  in  London,  offered  his  serv- 
ices, was  examined  and  at  once  accepted,  and  on  November  3,  1797, 
was  ordained  a  missionary  to  South  Africa.  Returning  to  Holland  to 
settle  his  affairs,  he  was  the  means  of  forming  two  missionary  societies 
in  his  own  country,  —  one  at  Rotterdam,  called  the  Netherland  Mission- 
ary Society,  and  another  at  Friesland,  both  to  cooperate  with  the  society 
in  London  in  the  cause  of  African  evangelization.  Meantime,  three  other 
men,  Messrs.  Kicherer,  Edmond,  and  Edwards,  became  interested  in  the 
subject,  offered  themselves,  and  were  accepted  and  appointed  as  fellow 
laborers  with  Dr.  Vanderkemp. 

On  the  23d  of  December,  1798,  all  embarked  for  Africa.  The  Hills- 
boro,  in  which  they  took  their  passage,  was  a  convict  ship,  and  chosen 
by  them  for  this  reason,  that  they  might  have  opjjortunity  to  render  hu- 
mane and  Christlike  service  to  some  of  the  most  wretched  and  abandoned 
of  men,  on  their  way  to  their  mission  field.  And  for  such  service  there 
was  much  occasion.  When  a  pestilent  fever  broke  out  among  the  con- 
victs, this  man  of  God  and  friend  of  humanity,  with  his  intrepid  brethren, 
ceased  not,  day  or  night,  to  minister  to  their  wants  and  distresses,  both 
temporal  and  spiritual,  exposing  themselves  to  all  the  dangers  of  infec- 
tious and  putrid  disease  to  alleviate  distress,  and  pluck,  if  possible,  the  per- 
ishing as  brands  from  the  burning.  Nor  were  the  prayers  and  labors  vain, 
for  ere  they  reached  the  Cape  several  gave  evidence  of  a  saving  change, 


Cex\t.  XVII.-XIX.]     JOHN  THEODOSIUS  VANDERKEMP.        805 

while  some  who  died  ou  the  passage  went  hence  in  the  hope  of  a  blessed 
immortality. 

March  31,  1799,  Dr.  Vanderkemp  landed  at  Cape  Town,  and  was 
kindly  received  by  the  governor  and  the  other  Europeans  ^j^^^g  ^^j  ^j^^ 
whom  he  found  there.  During  his  stay  at  the  Cape,  a  ^^^p*^- 
deep  interest  was  awakened  in  mission  work,  and  a  society,  called  the 
South  African  Society  for  Promoting  the  Spread  of  Christ's  Kingdom 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Plope,  was  formed.  Here,  too,  the  doctor  gave 
a  portion  of  almost  every  day  to  Christian  work  among  the  slaves,  Mo- 
hammedans and  Hottentots,  '•  some  of  whose  hearts,"  says  he,  "  were  evi- 
dently baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,  though  the  customs 
and  rules  of  this  country  did  not  allow  them  to  be  bajitized  with  water." 

The  London  society  had  committed  the  direction  of  the  mission  to 
the  doctor  himself ;  but  his  good  sense,  humility,  and  generous  nature 
soon  led  him  to  ask  to  be  released  from  this  distinction  and  exclusive 
responsibility,  as  he  believed  that  the  cause  which  was  to  him  most  pre- 
cious could  be  best  served  by  having  a  perfect  equality  established  be- 
tween himself  and  the  brethren  associated  with  him. 

Having  procured  the  needed  oxen,  wagon,  driver,  leader,  and  other 
outfit  for  a  long  journey  and  continued  abode  in  a  wild  and  barbarous 
region,  received  the  presents  and  best  of  benedictions  from  the  slaves 
who  had  enjoyed  his  ministry,  and  been  encouraged  and  strengthened 
by  the  prayers  of  all  the  good  whose  acquaintance  he  had  made,  on  the 
22d  of  May,  1799,  the  doctor  took  a  tender  and  gracious  leave  of  the 
Cape.  For  a  few  days,  the  route  of  the  four  missionaries  was  the  same, 
and  took  them  through  a  most  delightful  region.  But  coming  to  Rode- 
zand,  Messrs.  Kicherer  and  Edwards  went  to  the  Bushmen,  while  the 
doctor  and  his  coadjutor,  Edmond,  set  off  anew  and  alone.  May  29th,  for 
Caffraria.  They  soon  entered  the  Carrow,  where,  for  eight  days,  jour- 
neying through  a  dismal  wilderness  without  ever  seeing  a  human  habita- 
tion, they  were  exposed  to  a  great  variety  of  perils ;  now  from  the  strait- 
ness  and  roughness  of  the  passage  between  mountain  ridges,  now  from 
the  savage  Bushmen  who  lived  by  plunder,  and  now  from  the  wild  beasts 
that  often  disturbed  their  slumbers  and  kept  them  on  the  alert  at  night. 

Arriving  at  Gamka  River,  June  12th,  they  passed  a  restful  night  and 
joyous  day  with  a  Mr.  De  Beer.  Their  journey  from  this  place  onward 
was  very  fatiguing,  and  fraught,  too,  with  no  little  danger.  The  weather 
was  cold,  the  country  was  infested  with  wild  beasts,  and  their  lives  were 
often  impei'iled  by  pillaging  men,  Bushmen  equipped  with  poisoned  ar- 
rows, and  more  to  be  feared  than  the  leopard  and  lion.  They  reached 
Graaf  Reinet  June  29th,  and  had  a  most  hearty  welcome.  And  here, 
too,  as  in  every  place,  they  failed  not  to  reward  the  hospitality  shown 
them  by  earnest,  loving  labor  in  preaching  Jesus  Christ,  day  by  day, 
publicly  and  from  house  to  house. 


806  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

The  shorter  the  pendulum,  the  quicker  and  stronger  the  beat ;  so  the 
nearer  the  doctor  drew  to  his  long-sought  field,  the  more  his  zeal  and 
courage  enlarged.  And  well  it  was  so,  else  the  now  rapidly  increasing 
difficulties  and  dangers  had  been  too  great  for  his  triumph  over  them. 
Having  spent  a  few  days  of  delightful  intercourse  and  labor  with  Christian 
friends  at  Graaf  Reinet,  on  the  10th  of  July  he  set  forward  for  the  dark 
places  that  lay  beyond,  which,  just  now,  were  overflowing  with  deeds  of 
cruelty.  Colonists,  Hottentots,  and  Caffres  were  in  a  state  of  anarchy 
and  strife,  so  that  the  danger  of  the  missionary's  being  waylaid,  robbed, 
and  murdered  was  constant,  often  imminent.  Yet  nothing  daunted,  he 
pursued  his  journey  with  the  utmost  diligence,  and  took  every  opportunity 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  different  races  and  classes  he  met,  sometimes 
in  crowds,  along  the  way.  Ten  days'  travel  brought  him  to  the  Great 
Fish  River,  which  at  that  time  was  the  southern  limit  of  Caffre  land. 

From  this  point  he  sent  a  delegation  of  three  men  to  ask  permission 
Meets  the  king  ^^  ^^^  Caffre  king,  Geika,  to  come  and  visit  him.  After  a 
of  the  Caffres.  week's  abseuce  the  messengers  returned  with  a  favorable 
reply,  bringing  the  king's  tobacco-box  for  a  passport  to  him.  But  such 
were  the  hostile  movements  of  the  rebel  Caffres,  stealing  the  doctor's  oxen, 
and  threatening  his  life  and  the  lives  of  all  his  company,  that  he  was 
compelled  to  wait  for  more  peaceful  times.  After  a  mouth's  delay  he 
started  again,  though  the  perils  of  the  way  still  remained.  "  But,"  says 
the  doctor,  "  the  more  the  difficulties  and  dangers  were  mentioned,  the 
more  I  was  excited  in  mind  to  go  forward,  and  found  my  faith  increased." 
Three  weeks  of  eventful  and  wearisome  travel  brought  him  to  Geika's 
residence.  After  some  delay  his  Caffrarian  majesty  made  his  appearance, 
having  his  ministers  of  state  by  his  side.  His  lips  and  cheeks  were  painted 
red,  his  body  covered  with  a  long  robe  of  leopard  skins ;  in  his  hand  he  held 
an  iron  kiri,  while  on  his  head  he  wore  two  diadems,  one  of  copper  and 
one  of  beads.  Receiving  the  tobacco-box,  which  had  been  sent  for  a  pass- 
port, now  filled  with  beads,  he  gave  it  to  his  attendants,  but  spoke  not  a 
word,  and  hardly  winked  an  eye.  After  half  an  hour's  mute  audience,  an 
interpreter  appeared,  and  the  king,  taking  his  seat  upon  the  ground,  with 
his  captains  by  his  side,  deigned  to  open  his  mouth.  Dr.  Vanderkemp 
stated  to  him  the  object  of  his  mission.  Geika  replied  that  the  time  of  his 
coming  was  very  unfavorable,  as  all  the  country  was  in  a  state  of  confusion, 
and  advised  tlie  missionary  not  to  think  of  remaining  with  him,  yet  gave 
him  permission  to  unyoke  his  oxen  and  pitch  his  tent.  The  king  had  been 
prejudiced  against  the  missionaries,  being  told  that  they  were  spies  and 
assassins,  and  had  enchanted  wine  with  which  to  kill  him.  For  more 
than  a  fortnight  they  waited  in  suspense  and  pressed  their  suit,  but  got  no 
permission  to  remain.  Indeed  everything  seemed  forbidding,  and  vio- 
lence began  to  be  feared.  "  But,"  says  the  doctor,  "  I  found  my  rest  and 
strength  in  the  Lord,  and  got  much  comfort  from  his  Word," 


Cent.  XVH.-XIX.]    JOHN   THEODOSIUS  VANDERKEMP.        807 

One  more  attempt  being  made,  the  king  yielded,  confessed  Ins  neglect, 
said  he  was  at  fault,  but  had  been  very  much  occupied  with  the  festivals 
of  his  marriage ;  adding  that  he  was  glad  that  God  had  put  it  into  the 
hearts  of  these  men  to  come  into  his  country.  "So  then,"  said  he,  "let 
Tinkana  [Dr.  Vauderkemp]  take  the  field  on  the  other  side  of  the  Keis 
Kammer  River,  and  be  free  to  go  and  come  in  my  country  as  he  may 
please."  The  missionaries  immediately  set  off  for  the  station  assigned 
them,  and  reached  it  October  20,  1799.  Having  selected  a  spot  for  a 
house,  felled  a  few  trees,  and  cut  some  thatch  for  building,  "  I  kneeled 
down  on  the  grass,"  says  the  doctor,  "  thanking  the  Lord  Jesus  that  He 
had  provided  me  a  resting-place  before  the  face  of  our  enemies  and  Satan, 
praying  that  from  under  this  roof  the  seed  of  the  gospel  might  spread 
northward  through  all  Africa." 

The  doctor  soon  opened  a  school  in  which  he  taught  the  English  and 
Dutch  languages  to  eleven  pupils  of  various  nations.  And  now,  early  in 
December,  just  as  he  is  beginning  to  get  fairly  settled  in  his  work,  a  dep- 
uty from  the  governor  at  the  Cape  arrives  at  Geika's,  sends  for  the 
doctor,  and  begs  him  to  withdraw  from  Caffre  land  till  more  jjeaceful 
times  can  be  restored.  But  Geika  will  not  consent  to  his  leaving,  and 
is  so  offended  with  the  messenger  from  the  Cape  that  he  is  barely  pre- 
vented by  his  mother  and  uncle  from  killing  him  on  the  spot. 

Soon  after  this,  December  29th,  the  doctor's  colleague,  Edmond,  took 
his  departure  and  went  to  the  Cape  for  the  purjjose  of  pros-  ^^^^^  j^  caffre 
ecu  ting  a  design  he  had  long  cherished  of  going  to  India,  ^'^'^<^- 
thus  leaving  Dr.  Vanderkemp  to  struggle  alone  with  the  many  difficulties 
that  beset  his  work.  The  parting  was  very  fraternal  and  tender.  Hav- 
ing gone  together  over  the  river,  they  knelt  and  wrestled  for  a  time  with 
God,  in  prayers  and  tears,  after  which  Mr.  Edmond  departed  ;  while  the 
doctor,  having  given  him  his  last  and  best  benediction,  went  upon  a  hill, 
and  with  a  lingering  eye  followed  his  wagon  for  about  half  an  hour,  till, 
as  he  says,  "  It  sunk  behind  the  mountains,  and  I  lost  sight  of  him  to  see 
him  no  more." 

The  doctor  returned  to  his  cheerless  home  with  a  sad  yet  resolute  and 
hopeful  heart.  His  labors  and  dangers  during  the  succeeding  year  were 
many  ;  but  his  faith  and  courage  were  set  in  God,  by  whose  watchful  prov- 
idence he  was  saved  more  than  once  from  impending  death,  and  through 
whose  gracious  aid  he  was  joyously  permitted  to  see  his  labors  blessed. 
Teaching  school  and  preaching  the  gospel  continued  to  engage  his  time 
and  strength.  The  king  himself  sometimes  expressed  a  desire  to  be  in- 
structed, and  once  remarked  that  "  he  imagined  one  time  or  another  he 
should  be  a  Christian,"  adding  also  that  "  his  mother  and  another  woman 
wished  to  be  instructed  in  the  Christian  religion."  For  a  time  he  put 
himself  under  mission  teaching,  and  attended  school  with  the  children. 
But  he  was  still  the  slave  of  superstition,  ignorance,  and  caprice,  so  that, 


808  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

in  April,  after  the  doctor's  situation  had  come  to  be  somewhat  comfortable, 
and  his  labors  more  apparently  effective,  he  ordered  him  to  remove.  This 
broke  up  the  school,  aud  interrupted  important  plans,  but  was  in  some 
respects  overruled  for  good. 

His  attendants  and  pupils  now  included  the  three  races  of  Hottentots, 
Caffres,  and  colonists.  At  length,  one  of  the  former,  a  Hottentot  woman, 
named  Sarah,  began  to  give  evidence  of  a  work  of  grace  in  her  heart, 
and  was  in  due  time  baptized,  together  with  three  children.  "  And  oh," 
says  Dr.  Vanderkemp,  "  how  did  my  soul  rejoice  that  the  Lord  had  given 
me  in  this  wilderness,  among  tigers  and  wolves,  and  at  such  a  distance 
from  Christians,  a  poor  heathen  woman  with  whom  I  could  converse  con- 
fidently of  the  mysteries  of  the  hidden  communion  with  Christ.  Oh, 
that  I  may  not  be  deceived !  Lo,  my  winter  is  past ;  the  voice  of  the 
turtle  is  heard  in  the  land."  Others  expressed  an  interest  in  the  Christian 
faith,  and  some  gave  such  evidence  of  a  change  of  heart  as  greatly  en- 
couraged him  in  his  work. 

But  this  development  of  interest  in  the  gospel  seemed  to  arouse  all  the 
greater  opposition  aud  prejudice  against  the  missionary  and  his  work. 
More  than  once  did  Geika  determine  on  the  doctor's  death ;  and  it  was 
known  that,  on  one  occasion,  he  actually  came  with  an  armed  force  to 
murder  him  and  his  people.  Forbearing,  however,  to  narrate  the  accounts 
we  have  of  the  bloody  deeds  which  the  cruel  and  freakish  king  aud  his 
servants  were  instigating  and  perpetrating,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the 
lives  of  all  who  indicated  attachment  to  Dr.  Vanderkemp,  or  had  taken 
up  their  abode  near  his  station,  whether  native  or  European,  were  so 
much  endangered  that  at  the  close  of  the  year  they  determined  to  leave 
the  country  and  seek  a  place  of  more  security.  As  there  was  reason  to 
doubt  if  this  could  be  safely  done  by  any  open  or  direct  move,  those  who 
Hunts  elephants  ^^^  ^^  enterprise  in  charge  resolved  to  go  out  privately, 
to  save  his  life.  Qp  under  the  guise  of  hunting  elephants.  They  invited  the 
doctor  to  accompany  them.  To  this  he  was  at  first  opposed ;  but  seeing 
all  his  people  bent  on  leaving,  he  finally  consented  to  go  with  them,  and 
so  continue  his  labors  among  them.  The  company  numbered  some  sixty 
souls,  all  more  or  less  under  instruction,  besides  many  of  the  wild  yet  well- 
disposed  Caffres,  who,  however,  eventually  turned  back  to  the  old  homes. 

This  wandering  mode  of  life,  men  and  women,  flocks  and  herds,  being 
generally  on  the  move  during  the  day,  and  passing  their  nights,  if  pos- 
sible, where  grass,  woods,  and  water  could  be  found,  continued  for  more 
than  four  months.  But  the  doctor  rested  not  from  his  mission  work  ; 
nor  did  he  fail  to  find  repeated  manifestations  of  religious  interest  among 
the  people  of  his  charge.  And  now,  as  ever,  the  doctor  showed  himself 
no  respecter  of  persons,  having  under  instruction  men,  women,  aud  chil- 
dren from  some  four  or  five  tribes  and  nationalities,  —  English,  Hottentot, 
Caffre,  Tambookee,  and  some  of  a  mixed  blood,  Dutch  and  native.     In 


Cent.  XVn.-XIX.]    JOHN   THEODOSIUS  VANDERKEMP.        809 

this  and  in  other  ways,  during  these  wanderings,  the  doctor  had  the  best 
of  opportunity  for  prosecuting  his  study  of  the  natural,  social,  and  civil 
history  of  that  new  and  hitherto  unexplored  field,  —  the  soil,  climate, 
animal  and  vegetable  life  of  the  country,  as  also  his  study  of  the  language, 
religion,  manners  and  customs,  population,  and  government  of  the  people. 
For  broad  and  valuable  research  in  these  fields,  his  taste,  genius,  and 
varied  learning  gave  assurance  of  eminent  fitness,  while  the  rich  results 
achieved  gave  proof  of  great  industry  and  perseverance. 

Arriving  at  length  at  Graaf  Reinet,  May  14,  1801,  the  doctor  had  a 
cordial  reception,  and  was  rejoiced  to  meet  several  missionaries,  among 
whom  was  Mr.  Read,  who  had  just  been  sent  out  from  London  to  assist 
him.  The  doctor  was  soon  invited  by  the  elders  of  the  church  in  this 
place  to  settle  over  them  in  the  ministry.  But  he  declined  the  call  and 
continued  to  give  himself  to  mission  work,  especially  among  the  wretched 
Hottentots,  many  of  whom,  in  constant  danger  of  being  seized  in  their 
defenseless  and  secluded  homes  and  held  as  slaves  by  the  Dutch  colonists, 
had  fled  thither  for  protection.  The  doctor's  congregation  soon  came  to 
number  about  two  hundred.  But  his  attention  to  this  class  of  heathen 
roused  a  spirit  of  speedy  and  violent  opposition  among  the  colonists  in 
the  vicinity,  many  of  them  resorting  to  arms  and  threatening  to  burn  and 
destroy  the  town,  unless  the  government  would  put  a  stop  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  missionaries.  The  doctor  promptly  interposed  his  con- 
ciliatory offices,  and  was  at  length  instrumental  in  having  the  rebellion 
brought  to  an  end. 

His  congregation  of  Hottentots  kept  up  and  continued  "  to  increase 
in  number,  knowledge,  and  grace."  The  school  which  he  was  teaching 
increased  also,  so  that  by  September  it  had  come  to  number  sixty-two. 
The  situation  was  now  so  promising  that  the  missionaries  resolved  to 
erect  the  buildings  necessary  for  making  this  a  permanent  station.  The 
government  gave  a  piece  of  land  for  the  purpose,  and  the  buildings  were 
erected.  But  another  rebellion  being  set  on  foot  because  of  the  privi- 
leges afforded  the  natives  at  Graaf  Reinet,  Dr.  Vanderkemp  proposed  to 
have  some  new  place  selected  for  a  Hottentot  settlement,  to  which  this 
wretched  and  persecuted  people  might  be  removed,  where  they  could  be 
effectually  shielded  from  the  wrongs  which  the  envious  and  wicked  Boers 
were  continually  practicing  upon  them,  and  where,  too,  they  could  be 
not  only  educated  and  Christianized,  but  also  taught  industrial  habits 
and  useful  pursuits  which  would  procure  a  better  means  of  subsistence  and 
make  life  more  comfortable.  This  plan  was  approved  by  the  government 
of  the  colony,  which  granted  for  the  settlement  a  piece  of  ground  near 
Algoa  Bay.  So  hearty  and  generous  was  the  approval  which  Governor 
Dundas  gave  the  plan,  that  he  sent  a  shipload  of  articles  from  Cape 
Town,  to  be  used  in  laying  the  foundation  of  the  institution,  and  in  sup- 
port of  the  people  for  a  time  on  their  first  arrival  at  the  new  settlement. 


810  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

On  the  20tli  of  February,  1802,  Dr.  Vanderkemp  and  Mr.  Read  took 
their  departure  from  Graaf  Reinet,  with  a  part  of  their  congregation, 
which,  as  they  journeyed  on,  was  somewhat  increased,  so  that  when  they 
arrived  at  the  chosen  settlement,  "  Beta's  Phxce,"  March  5th,  it  numbered 
one  hundred  and  sixty  Hottentots.  The  station,  or  farm,  was  about  three 
miles  from  the  bay  and  seven  from  Fort  Frederick.  It  combined  many 
advantages,  and  the  buildings  were  such  as  to  allow  of  the  missionaries 
entering  at  once  upon  the  work  of  instruction.  Very  soon,  however,  it 
was  found  that  the  stagnant  water  of  the  place  was  injurious  to  health. 
Dr.  Vanderkemp  was  so  affected  by  this  and  by  a  severe  rheumatism  as 
to  be  laid  aside  from  active  service  and  confined  much  of  the  time  to  his 
bed  for  nearly  a  year.  The  principal  care  of  the  station  now  devolved 
upon  his  f^iithful  and  indefatigable  coadjutor,  Mr.  Read. 

But  this  new  settlement,  like  the  former,  was  subject  to  much  hardship 
and  peril  from  the  malice  and  assaults  of  the  colonists.  Such  were  the 
tumults  and  injurious  reports  raised,  that  Governor  Dundas  eventually 
forbade  the  missionaries  receiving  any  more  natives  into  the  institution. 
In  September,  the  governor  visited  them,  and  was  so  much  impressed 
with  the  good  they  were  doing  and  the  danger  they  were  incurring,  that 
he  advised  them  to  take  quarters  in  Fort  Frederick,  from  which  he  was 
just  then  removing  the  garrison.  They  at  first  declined;  but  having 
been  repeatedly  attacked  by  their  enemies,  and  had  many  of  their  cattle 
stolen  and  some  of  their  people  killed,  they  retreated,  with  their  people, 
into  the  fortress,  and  remained  there  for  some  months.  Yet  the  work 
of  the  Lord  went  on,  so  that  from  September  to  April  the  missionaries 
reckoned  more  than  twenty  hopeful  conversions  among  the  Hottentots, 
some  of  whom  Dr.  Vanderkemp  baptized  sitting  in  his  bed.  At  the  time 
they  were  compelled  to  take  up  their  abode  in  the  fort,  the  institution 
had  increased  to  three  hundred  souls;  but  this  number  was  somewhat 
diminished  by  the  removal. 

About  this  time  the  colony  passed  from  the  rule  of  the  English  into 
Founds  Bethels-  ^^^  hands  of  the  Dutch  again,  and  the  new  governor,  Jan- 
doi^P-  sens,  went  through  the  country,  inquiring  into  the  causes  of 

its  calamities.  On  this  tour  his  mind  was  much  prejudiced  against  the 
missionaries,  but  on  meeting  them  and  seeing  their  work,  he  became  at 
once  convinced  of  the  utility  of  their  labors,  and  proffered  assistance  in 
the  way  of  forming  a  new  station.  The  place  chosen  was  about  seven 
miles  north  of  the  bay,  and  took  the  name  "  Bethelsdorp,"  or  village  of 
Bethel.  The  missionaries  and  their  people  took  possession  of  their  new 
station  about  the  1st  of  June,  1803,  and  now  for  the  first  time  after  his 
long  sickness,  the  doctor  began  to  enter  upon  active  duties  and  take 
charge  of  public  worship.  The  station  was  laid  out  in  the  form  of  a 
parallelogram,  and  the  borders  were  marked  off  into  squares  for  Hotten- 
tot dwellings.     In  the  centre  they  built  a  church,  to  which  were  attached 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     JOHN   THEODOSIUS  VANDERKEMP.       811 

four  wings  for  the  use  of  the  mission  families.  On  the  2d  of  July,  just 
a  month  from  their  entering  upon  the  new  field,  the  church  was  ready  for 
religious  service  and  for  the  school.  Much  success  attended  their  efforts, 
so  that  at  the  close  of  the  year  the  missionaries  say,  "  The  Lord's  work, 
to  the  glory  of  his  name,  has  this  year  been  conspicuous.  Heathen  dark- 
ness has  fled  before  the  gospel  light,  and  the  power  of  converting  grace 
has  triumphed  over  the  power  of  Satan,  in  the  hearts  of  these  pagans  to 
whom  we  have  been  called  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ." 

During  the  next  year,  1804,  the  work  went  on  with  less  of  interrup- 
tion, yet  the  malignant  opposition  of  the  Boers,  though  restrained,  was  not 
much  abated.  Under  date  of  April  2d,  the  doctor  writes,  "  The  congre- 
gation of  our  church  increases  continually,  also  the  power  of  grace,  by 
which  the  Lord  from  above  gives  evidence  that  our  preaching  is  not  in 
vain."  And  again,  under  date  of  November  1st,  "The  work  of  converting 
grace  still  continues,  and  now  and  then,  as  we  trust,  a  pearl  is  added  to 
the  crown  of  Jesus.  In  the  course  of  this  year,  I  have  baptized  twenty- 
two  adults  and  fourteen  children.  The  whole  number  of  our  church 
members  is  forty-three."  The  number  of  people  at  Bethelsdorp,  at  this 
time,  was  three  hundred  and  twenty. 

The  following  year,  the  loud  and  long-continued  clamor  of  the  Boers 
against  the  mission  was  such  that  early  in  March  the  doctor  was  sum- 
moned to  the  Cape,  and  there  detained  till  it  seemed  probable  that  the 
missionaries  would  be  compelled  to  leave  the  colony.  For  this  they  had 
begun  to  make  preparation,  purposing  to  go  to  Mozambique  or  Mada- 
gascar ;  when  early  in  January,  1806,  the  colony  came  back  into  the 
hands  of  the  English.  The  missionaries  were  now  allowed  to  remain 
and  resume  their  labors,  and  the  doctor  was  sent  back  to  Bethelsdorp,  in 
one  of  the  wagons  which  the  English  general,  Sir  David  Baird,  had 
taken  from  Governor  Jansens.  Arriving  at  the  institution,  "  We  find," 
says  the  doctor,  "  to  our  joy  and  comfort,  the  work  of  converting  grace 
going  on  prosperously  and  with  power." 

Some  of  the  more  advanced  of  the  Hottentots  now  began  to  go  out 
and  labor,  as  mission  helpers,  among  their  countrymen  in  the  colony,  and 
in  so  doing  were  much  blessed  of  God.  In  1807  a  good  religious  inter- 
est began  to  be  manifest  among  the  CafFres,  who  had  now  been  brought 
under  the  teaching  of  the  missionaries  at  Bethelsdorp.  The  following 
year,  1808,  an  outstation  was  formed  at  Stuurman's  Kraal,  and  put 
under  Mr.  Read's  care.  The  population  at  Bethelsdorp  had  gradually  in- 
creased until  a  second  and  now  a  third  square  had  been  carried  round  the 
first.  The  fields  were  covered  with  cattle,  which  numbered  some  twelve 
hundred  head,  besides  sheep  and  goats.  The  number  of  houses  in  the 
squares  was  between  seventy  and  eighty,  each  house  averaging  not  less 
than  ten  souls.  The  people,  men  and  women,  became  industrious,  the 
children   were  trained  to  diligence  and  to  useful  habits,  the  girls  were 


812  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

taught  knittiug,  among  other  things,  and  in  one  year  earned  in  this  way 
no  less  than  two  hundred  and  seven  dollars.  In  short,  the  institution 
now  attained  to  such  a  growth,  solidity,  and  strength,  that  the  doctor 
began  to  consider  the  question  of  leaving  it  soon  to  the  care  of  some 
other  missionary,  that  he  might  devote  the  remainder  of  his  own  days  to 
the  work  of  the  Lord  in  some  nation  as  yet  ignorant  of  the  way  of  life. 
One  plan  he  had  in  mind  was  to  make  a  tour  to  the  northeast,  beyond 
the  limits  of  CafFraria,  for  the  purpose  of  commencing  a  chain  of  mis- 
sion settlements,  which  should  extend  along  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  the 
first  of  which,  after  Bethelsdoi'p,  should  be  among  the  Tambookees,  on 
the  north  of  the  CafFres.  Or,  failing  to  find  the  way  open  in  this  direc- 
tion, his  desire  was  to  attempt  a  mission  in  Madagascar. 

Waiting  instructions  from  England,  Dr.  Vauderkemp  continued  his 
work  at  Bethelsdorp,  meantime  projecting  a  jilan  for  an  asylum  where 
neglected  children  might  be  cared  for  in  a  proper  manner.  During  the 
year  he  made  a  visit  to  Stuurman's  Kraal,  when  many  were  deeply  af- 
fected by  his  preaching,  and  gathered  to  hear  him  in  such  numbers  that 
the  meetings  had  to  be  held  in  the  open  air.  The  population  at  Bethels- 
dorp had  now  become  a  thousand,  and  many  who  had  been  enemies  to 
the  missionaries  now  came  to  receive  instruction  at  their  lips.  The  gov- 
ernor of  the  colony,  Lord  Caledon,  also  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  work 
and  offered  every  possible  assistance. 

In  1810  Mr.  Read  made  a  journey  into  Caffraria,  where  the  people 
gave  him  a  joyous  reception,  and  asked  him  to  send  them  a  missionary. 
Kind  inquiries  were  made  concerning  "  Tinkana,"  and  a  strong  desire  ex- 
pressed to  see  him.  To  the  discerning,  reflecting  Caffre,  still  untaught 
as  he  was,  the  doctor's  good  name  seemed  all  the  more  fresh  and  fragrant 
for  the  years  that  had  passed. 

In  one  of  Mr.  Read's  letters  to  the  directors  in  London,  he  refers  to 
A  deliverer  of  ^^^®  great  Cruelty  which  the  Hottentots  are  continually  suf- 
the  oppressed,  fgring  at  the  hands  of  the  Boers,  and  tells  how  Dr.  Vau- 
derkemp had  been  so  affected  by  a  knowledge  of  it,  in  several  instances, 
that  within  a  period  of  three  years  he  had  paid  about  five  thousand  dol- 
lars out  of  his  own  pocket  to  redeem  some  of  these  wronged  and  wretched 
creatui'es  from  bondage.  In  this  and  in  every  other  possible  and  proper 
way  did  the  doctor  give  his  voice  so  eloquently  against  oppression,  and 
so  earnestly  did  he  plead  the  cause  of  humanity,  as  to  inaugurate  a  strug- 
gle which,  though  long  continued,  yet,  through  the  subsequent  persever- 
ing efforts  of  Dr.  Philip  and  others,  finally  culminated  triumphantly  in 
the  Hottentots'  effectual  deliverajice  from  their  chains.  When  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  by  Lord  Caledon  to  investigate  the  numerous 
charges  of  cruelty  and  murder  brought  against  the  colonists  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Bethelsdorp,  Dr.  Vanderkemp  was  summoned  to  the  Cape  to  testify 
as  to  what  he  knew  of  the  matter.     The  result  was  that  his  excellency 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]     JOHN   THEODOSIUS  VANDERKEMP.        813 

had  no  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of  the  charges,  and  appointed  commission- 
ers to  visit  the  several  districts  where  the  bloody  crimes  had  been  perpe- 
trated, and  bring  the  guilty  to  the  punishment  they  deserved.  This 
effective  exposure  of  the  grievous  wrongs  so  long  practiced  upon  the 
Hottentot  race  was  one  of  the  last  public  services  which  the  doctor  was 
able  to  render  that  people,  whose  deliverance  from  thraldom,  both  tem- 
poral and  spiritual,  had  now  been  the  object  of  his  solicitude  for  more  than 
a  decade  of  years. 

Missionaries  having  arrived  from  England  to  take  charge  of  the  work 
at  Bethelsdorp,  Dr.  Vanderkemp  began  to  prepare  for  the  new  mission 
he  had  long  had  in  mind,  and  was  directed  to  the  choice  of  Madagascar 
as  the  more  open  of  the  two  or  three  fields  to  which  his  thoughts  had 
been  turned.  But  while  he  was  waiting  an  opportunity  to  engage  a  pas- 
sage thither,  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  accepted  the  will  for  the  deed, 
and  turned  his  thoughts  to  another  region.  Having  had  about  a  week's 
intimation  that  his  end  was  drawing  near,  on  the  15th  of  December,  1811, 
after  having  briefly  testified  to  the  assurance  of  his  faith  in  the  grace 
and  providence  of  God  by  saying,  "  All  is  well,"  he  went  to  enjoy  the 
eternal  rest  and  bliss  the  Lord  had  prepared  for  him  in  heaven.  The 
number  of  his  years  was  about  sixty-four,  the  last  thirteen  of  which  he 
had  devoted  with  great  fidelity  to  the  service  of  his  Master,  in  one  of  the 
most  self-denying  fields  within  the  knowledge  and  reach  of  God's  people 
at  that  day. 

Doubtless  it  would  be  saying  too  much  —  more  than  can  be  said  of 
any  man  in  this  life  —  to  claim  that  in  the  memorable  subject  of  thia 
narrative  the  critical  eye  could  never  have  seen  any  imperfection.  To 
err  is  human  ;  the  sun  itself  has  its  spots.  On  the  other  hand,  who 
will  question  the  opinion  which  one  well  acquainted  with  his  life,  charac- 
ter, and  labors  has  expressed,  that,  "for  combining  natural  talents,  ex- 
tensive learning,  elevated  piety,  ardent  zeal,  disinterested  benevolence, 
unshaken  perseverance,  unfeigned  humility,  and  primitive  simplicity,  Dr. 
Vanderkemp  has,  perhaps,  never  been  equaled  since  the  days  of  the 
Apostles  "  ?  Well  does  the  venerable  Moffatt  say  of  him  :  "  He  came 
from  a  university,  to  stoop  to  teach  the  alphabet  to  the  poor  naked 
Hottentot  and  Caffre  ;  from  the  society  of  nobles,  to  associate  with  beings 
of  the  lowest  grade  in  the  scale  of  humanity ;  from  stately  mansions 
to  the  filthy  hovel  of  the  greasy  African ;  from  the  army,  to  instruct 
the  fierce  savage  in  the  tactics  of  a  heavenly  warfare  under  the  banner  of 
the  Prince  of  Peace ;  from  the  study  of  medicine  to  become  a  guide  to 
the  balm  in  Gilead  and  the  physician  there;  and,  finally,  from  a  life  of 
earthly  honor  and  ease,  to  be  exposed  to  perils  of  waters,  of  robbers,  of 
his  own  countrymen,  of  the  heathen,  in  the  city,  in  the  wilderness." 

Thus  lived,  wrought,  prayed,  and  prevailed  the  untiring,  unselfish  Van- 
derkemp, the  great  apostolic  pioneer  in  African  missions.  —  L.  G. 


814  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

LIFE   XXXV.      HENEY  MARTYN. 

A.  D.  1781-A.  D.  1812.      EPISCOPAL,  —  PERSIA. 

"  Behold  an  Israelite  indeed  in  whom  is  no  guile"  is  a  description  in 
few  words  of  Henry  Martyn,  one  of  God's  soldiers,  who  was  made  per- 
fect through  suffering,  and  now  shines  forth  as  one  of  the  noblest  and 
most  lovable  characters  in  the  whole  missionary  history  of  the  church  in 
modern  times.  Nature  and  grace  combined  to  make  his  character  beau- 
tifully symmetrical,  and  to  stamp  it  with  a  completeness  such  as  is  rarely 
seen.  He  was  an  acute  mathematician,  and  yet  a  great  lover  of  poetry ; 
an  accomplished  scholar,  and  yet  a  simple  Mary-like  spirit ;  thoroughly 
versed  in  the  master-works  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  yet  more  thoroughly 
a  master  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  a  loftily  soaring,  and  yet  a  deeply  pene- 
trating mind ;  at  ease  in  his  work,  yet  always  pressing  forward  ;  earnest, 
yet  cheerful ;  withdrawn  from  the  world,  yet  delighting  in  existence ;  ex- 
tremely conscientious,  yet  not  painfully  so ;  of  ardent  affections,  and  yet 
chaste ;  a  man  of  thought,  but  just  as  truly  a  man  of  action  !  After  he 
had  once  found  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  understanding,  he  lived 
every  day  penitently  and  prayerfully  studying  the  Scriptures,  devoted  to 
the  honor  of  his  Redeemer  and  the  salvation  of  his  fellows,  rejoicing  with 
them  that  rejoiced,  weeping  with  them  that  wept,  harmless  and  simple  as 
a  child,  high-spirited  and  strong  as  a  man  complete  in  Christ  Jesus.  He 
therefore  lived  a  precious  life  within  a  few  years ;  filled  not  with  deeds 
outwardly  dazzling,  but  with  labor  the  glory  of  which  is  hid  with  Christ 
in  God,  and  will  be  revealed  in  his  own  good  time. 

Henry  Martyn  was  born  in  1781,  at  Truro,  in  the  county  of  Cornwall, 
England.  Of  hopeful  promise,  he  was  set  apart  to  be  a  scholar.  He 
acquired  learning  with  great  facility  and  with  an  increasing  ambition. 
Boasting  himself,  as  a  youth,  of  having  never  lost  an  hour,  he  was  disposed 
to  be  jealous  and  quarrelsome  whenever  he  failed  of  the  principal  prize. 
The  gentle  endeavors  of  a  Christian  sister  were  of  no  avail.  The  reminder 
of  a  friend  that  we  must  learn  first  of  all  to  honor  God  seemed  to  him 
mere  foolishness.  Invitations  to  repentance  and  humility  only  vexed  him, 
until  the  sudden  announcement  of  the  death  of  his  loved  father  came  upon 
him  like  lightning  out  of  a  clear  sky.  His  sister  wrote  him  that  the  last 
words  of  the  dying-  man  were,  "  All  is  vanity ;  the  only  excellence  is 
humbleness  and  child-like  belief  upon  God's  grace  in  Christ  Jesus."  She 
told  him  how  their  father  had  thought  especially  of  his  absent  son,  and 
had  implored  for  him  a  humble  heart  and  the  favor  of  God.  The  light- 
ning entered  Henry's  soul,  and  burned  up  with  clear  flame  the  wood,  hay, 
and  stubble,  heaped  togetlier  in  the  mind  of  the  youth  so  full  of  worldly 
knowledge.     In  his  humility  he  began  to  cry  to  God.     His  open  Bible 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  HENRY  MARTYN.  815 

presented  to  him  the  command,  "Enter  in  at  the  strait  gate."     His* soul 
in  fear  resolved  from  that  day  onward  to  seek  life  along  the  narrow  path. 

When  not  twenty  years  old  he  passed  his  public  examinations  with 
great  credit,  especially  in  mathematics.  He  was  kept  of  God  from  en- 
slaving himself  anew  to  his  wicked  foe,  selfish  ambition.  He  retired  from 
school,  and  entered  the  higher  school  of  prayer  and  of  study  of  the  Script- 
ures, in  the  quiet  of  his  home,  under  one  of  his"  father's  friends,  with  a  few 
excellent  young  men  as  his  companions.  He  resolved  to  be  a  clergyman. 
But  he  was  not  content  to  labor  as  such  at  home.  Through  descriptions  of 
the  apostolic  zeal  of  Brainerd,  the  valiant  American  missionary,  of  the 
achievements  of  Schwartz,  of  Germany,  in  the  East  Indies,  in  near  half 
a  century  of  effort,  and  of  the  deeds  of  Carey,  who  rose  from  a  shoe- 
maker's bench  to  be  a  doctor  of  divinity,  Martyn  came  to  feel  that  he 
too  must  enter  upon  the  work  of  foreign  missions.  Through  Martyn  becomes 
conflict  of  soul  and  fervent  prayer  he  became  assured  that  ^  m'^^sionary. 
he  was  appointed  of  God  to  this  labor.  He  placed  himself  under  the 
society  recently  established  in  the  Church  of  England  for  missions  iu 
Africa  and  in  the  East.  In  the  mean  time,  by  devoting  himself  to  the 
work  of  preaching,  he  gained  experience  in  the  care  and  comfort  of 
souls,  and  in  the  relief  of  the  poor.  He  filled  his  places  of  preaching  to 
overflowing.  He  was  kept  from  self-exaltation  not  only  by  prayer,  to 
which  he  gave  half  his  nights,  and  by  meditation,  to  which  he  gave  all  his 
Sabbaths,  but  also  by  temptation,  which  Martin  Luther  once  called  the 
third  fountain  of  strength  to  a  disciple.  He,  with  his  sisters,  lost  their  pat- 
rimony, so  that  his  heart's  desire  to  be  a  missionary  seemed  overthrown. 
Yet  his  prayer  was,  "  Not  as  I  will,  O  Lord,  but  as  Thou  wilt."  At  last 
he  saw  the  longed-for  yet  trying  hour  when  he  was  to  leave  his  father- 
land and  his  friends,  to  go  to  the  land  which  God  should  show  him. 

He  received  ordination  in  London,  being  in  his  twenty-fourth  year. 
With  deep  emotion  and  holy  purposes  he  took  leave  of  his  parish.  He 
used  the  time  at  his  disposal  to  acquire  the  necessary  foreign  languages. 
When  he  embarked  at  Portsmouth  his  people  gave  him  a  compass  as  a 
keepsake.  On  his  knees  he  prayed  that  the  Word  of  God  might  be  their 
guide  and  his  through  the  wilderness  of  earth  to  the  home  in  heaven. 
He  spoke  a  last  farewell,  having  formed  his  purpose  to  live  and  to  die  on 
distant  shores.  He  did  not  forget  upon  the  voyage  his  obligations  to  his 
fellow-voyagers.  In  the  face  of  contempt  and  indifference  he  gathered 
about  him  every  day  a  little  company  whom  he  awakened  and  strength- 
ened. In  tempest  and  in  pestilence  he  stood  by  his  post.  At  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  the  troops  landing  had  to  go  to  meet  the  enemy.  Mar- 
tyn joined  himself  to  one  of  the  divisions,  to  tend  and  to  comfort  the 
wounded.  The  unfortunate  ones  were  helped  by  his  encouragements  and 
prayers.  Having  remained  for  a  time  with  loved  companions  in  Cape 
Town,  now  held  by  the  British,  he  sailed  on  to  India.     He  went  to  work 


816  THE  CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

in  Madras,  glad  in  God,  though  deeply  burdened  by  the  condition  of  the 
people.  "  Oh  that  one  soul  might  be  led  by  my  agency  to  Christ,"  was  his 
In  Madras  Cai-  single  request.  The  rays  of  the  Indian  sun,  to  which  he 
cutta,  Dinapore.  ^^g  ^qj  uscd,  and  the  deep  death  shadows  in  which  the  people 
of  the  beautiful  land  were  reposing,  tried  Martyn  severely.  Only  his  faith, 
overcoming  the  world,  could  have  upheld  him  in  soul  and  in  body.  Mad- 
ras was  not  to  be  his  abiding  home.  He  had  to  go  to  Calcutta.  After 
a  stormy  passage  he  was  received  by  friends  there  gladly.  They  gave 
him  shelter  in  a  forsaken  idol  temple,  which  was  turned  by  Martyn  into 
a  chapel.  He  was  called  to  pay  his  tribute  to  the  hot  climate  in  a  severe 
sickness.  Afterwards  he  began  his  work  of  preaching,  with  courage.  The 
story  of  the  cross  made  him  both  friends  and  foes.  He  got  encouragement 
from  the  former  and  discipline  from  the  latter.  He  soon  removed  to  his 
own  especial  field  of  labor,  Dinapore,  a  city  of  forty  thousand  inhabitants. 

Martyn  made  use  of  every  opportunity  to  acquire  the  living  language 
of  India  and  also  the  old  Sanskrit,  intending,  with  the  help  of  a  native, 
to  prepare  a  version  of  the  Bible.  His  first  effort  in  Dinapore  was  for 
setting  up  schools  for  the  Hinddos.  He  soon  had  five  schools,  attended 
,  by  a  great  number  of  children.  Four  times  every  Sunday  he  taught 
Europeans  and  natives  the  Bible,  either  in  public  or  in  private.  The  free 
feast  was  loathed  by  "  cultivated  "  Christians  and  Moslems.  Among  the 
poor  and  the  sick  of  the  hospitals  was  there  some  longing  for  the  bread 
of  life.  The  Hindoos  seemed  dull  and  almost  unfitted  for  a  pure  Chris- 
tianity through  the  erroneous  lessons  of  Romanist  missionaries.  These 
^  beginnings  in  hope  and  in  fear  were  very  arduous.  The  far-away,  soli- 
tary man  rarely  heard  from  his  friends.  From  home  came  distressing 
news.  His  best  loved  sister,  his  helper  in  Christian  attainments,  had 
died.  A  young  lady,  very  dear  to  him,  whom  he  with  the  advice  of 
friends  sought  for  his  life's  companion,  did  not  yield  to  his  desire.  Yet 
he  now  only  the  more  completely  and  exclusively  gave  himself  to  think 
of  God,  forgetting  all  beside,  and  to  conform  his  life  wholly  to  the  dying 
of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

The  finishing  of  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Hindoo 
gave  Martyn  great  delight.  He  at  once  devoted  himself  with  all  his 
might  to  the  Persian  and  Arabic,  in  order  to  translate  the  Bible  into 
these  languages.  He  read  the  Koran  in  company  with  an  Arabian 
scholar.  He  wished  to  fight  Islam  with  its  own  weapon,  for  which  there 
was  abundant  opportunity. 

Though  frail  in  body,  he  listened  to  a  call  to  a  field  yet  farther  re- 
moved. He  journeyed  thither  day  and  night  even  in  the  exceeding  heat. 
He  had  little  bodily  strength  left  him.  But  the  strength  of  God  was 
made  perfect  in  his  weakness.  He  began  his  labors  without  wearying. 
His  time  was  filled  up  with  preaching,  praying,  Bible  exposition  and 
translation,  and  visits  to  the  hospitals.     His  first  jjublic  sermon  to  hea- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  HENRY  MARTYN.  817 

thens  was  delivered  at  the  close  of  the  year  1809.  A  crowd  of  begging 
Hindoos  had  gathered  about  him.  Martyn  read  the  first  part  of  Genesis 
to  them  in  his  Hindoo  version..  Speaking  to  them  simply  of  God,  the 
Almighty  Father,  Creator,  and  future  Judge,  he  was  received  with  loud 
approbation.  At  times  as  many  as  eight  hundred  persons  would  gather 
about  his  door.  One  time  they  were  deeply  moved  by  a  sermon  on  re- 
pentance, which  he  based  upon  the  destruction  of  the  city  of  Sodom. 

The  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Persian,  made  under  Martyn's  direc- 
tions, did  not  satisfy  those  who  were  iudges.     He  therefore 

'  -^  •'       °  ^  .To  Persia  to 

resolved  to  go  to  Persia  and  to  Arabia,  in  order  to  subject  finish  the  Per- 
his  Persian  version  which  was  finished,  and  his  Arabian 
which  approached  completion,  to  a  thorough  revision,  and  to  correct  mis- 
takes in  accordance  with  the  judgment  of  learned  natives  of  the  two 
countries.  With  his  weak  frame  holding  his  stout  soul,  he  took  leave  of 
India  in  his  longing  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  Persians  and  Arabians. 
Upon  June  9,  1811,  he  arrived  at  Shiraz,  the  Persian  literary  capital. 
Hardly  recovered  from  the  exceeding  fatigues  of  the  journey,  he  began 
a  new  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Persian.  He  was  lent  assistance  in 
this  by  Said  Ali,  a  member  of  the  self-deifying  sect  of  Mohammedans,, 
known  as  the  Sofis.  With  him  and  his  comrades  Martyn  held  many 
discussions  upon  grace  and  truth.  He  reached  All's  heart  especially 
when  they  were  going  through  the  twelfth  chapter  of  John.  The  Per- 
sian involuntarily  exclaimed  in  wonder  at  Jesus  loving  his  disciples  so 
dearly.  Tears  filled  his  eyes  as  to  him  —  a  seeker,  as  he  said,  "from  his- 
youth  up  "  —  Martyn  imparted  the  true  religion,  and  bade  him  yield  his 
soul  to  his  dear  Lord  and  Redeemer.  Beneath  the  budding  vines,  by  the- 
clear  river,  under  the  shade  of  the  citron,  Martyn,  in  the  stillness  of  the 
Sabbath,  meditating  upon  the  Scripture  and  singing  holy  songs,  with- 
drew himself  from  the  cares  and  toils  of  his  witness-bearing,  which  he 
purposed  continuing  as  long  as  his  tongue  could  move.  His  presence  in 
Shiraz  excited  great  noise.  The  scholars  resorted  to  him,  and  he  re- 
ceived them.  He  was  at  hand  for  a  public  discussion  with  the  most 
noted  masters  of  the  Koran  and  the  leader  of  the  Sofis.  His  noble 
character,  his  fearless  frankness,  his  profound  and  clear  replies,  left  abid- 
ing marks  in  the  souls  of  many  of  his  hearers.  His  words  exerted  quiet 
power  even  at  banquets.  When  the  chief  of  a  Persian  school  wrote 
a  work  in  defense  of  Mohammed,  Martyn  met  him  at  once  with  a  bold 
reply.  The  impressions  made  by  this  and  others  of  his  writings  cannot 
be  described.  Long  after,  it  became  evident  for  the  first  time  how  many 
had  been  led  by  Martyn  to  direct  their  thoughts  to  Christ, 

As  soon  as  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament  was  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced, Martyn  began  to  turn  the  Psalms  into  Persian.  After  he  had 
succeeded  in  this  he  went  from  Shiraz  by  way  of  Ispahan  to  the  court 
of  the  Persian  sovereign,  to  present  to  him  the  two  volumes.     On  the 

52 


818         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V, 

way  some  stout  conflicts  arose  with  learned  Mollahs.     Martyn  bore  wit- 
ness fearlessly.     Not  a  hair  of  his  head  was  hurt,  although  the  others 
cried  in  rage,  "  See,  he  has  blasphemed  God."     Sick  in  body  he  reached 
Tabriz  and  found  the  English  ambassador.     The  latter  pre- 

The  Shah  re- 

ceiTes  Martjn's     sented  the  translations  to  the  Shah,  by  whom  they  were  well 
received,  and  afterwards  carried  them  to  St.  Petersburg. 
.  Printed  in  that  city,  the  books  came  back  to  Persia  in  a  thousand  streams 
of  life  and  blessing. 

It  was  Martyn's  choice  to  live  and  to  die  among  the  pagans  for  whom 
he  labored.  But  his  frame,  sjiattered  by  toil  and  by  the  climate,  refused 
to  serve  him.  He  therefore  resolved  to  build  himself  up  in  his  native 
air,  and  afterwards  with  new  strength  to  go  preparing  the  way  of  God 
among  the  heathen.  With  great  difficulty  summoning  up  his  energies, 
he  left  Tabriz  for  Constantinople  and  far-off  England.  Passing  Mount 
Ararat  robed  in  green,  he  thought,  as  he  looked  upon  its  sides,  of  Noah, 
and  prayed  for  a  propitious  voyage  through  life's  rude  storms,  and  for  a 
happy  landing  upon  the  everlasting  hills.  He  reached  Erivan.  In  the 
Armenian  cloister  of  Etschmiadschin,  he  strove  to  stir  one  brother,  Se- 
rafino,  to  a  reform  of  the  church  in  Armenia.  He  passed  by  Kars  in 
the  land  of  the  rude  Koords,  and  came  to  populous  Erzeroum.  As  he 
journeyed  he  sent  touching  letters  home.  His  cherished  diary,  also,  was 
a  silent  witness  to  his  precious  spiritual  life  and  aspiration.  When  op- 
pressed by  disease  in  Erzeroum,  he  heard  the  flying  news  that  the  plague 
was  in  Constantinople,  and  in  the  cities  on  his  way.  With  death  in 
front  of  him,  and  death  behind  him,  he  cried,  "  God,  thy  will  be  done, 
be  it  life  or  death,  if  Thou  only  remember  me  !  "  He  could  not  remain 
still.  When  racked  by  fever  he  was  obliged  to  follow  his  merciless  guide 
in  a  rapid  ride  through  forests  and  swamps,  mountains  and  vales,  not  a 
soul  near  him,  in  that  strange  land,  in  whom  he  could  put  confidence.  In 
a  little  village  where  the  horses  were  changed,  he  took  a  seat  in  a  garden, 
thinking  quietly  and  joyfully  of  his  God,  his  companion  in  loneliness,  his 
friend  and  comforter.  "  Ah,  when  will  time  make  place  for  eternity ! 
When  will  appear  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,  in  which  dwelleth 
righteousness !  There  nothing  unclean  shall  enter.  No  evil  such  as  has 
made  men  lower  than  wild  beasts.  There  shall  be  seen  or  heard  none 
of  those  vicious  things  which  increase  and  embitter  here  below  the  sor- 
row of  one  who  is  dying."  These  were  the  last  words  which  he  wrote 
in  the  diary  which  he  left  behind  him.  Reaching  Tokat,  near  Sinope, 
IDs  lonely  death  ^e  had  to  lay  down  his  pilgrim  staff  in  the  midst  of  his 
in  Tokat.  ^jg^yg  g^^^j  of  ijig  joumcy.     He  died  October  16,  1812,  when 

not  thirty-two  years  old.  His  lonely  grave  is  marked  by  a  simple  stone 
with  an  inscription.  More  enduring  than  stone  or  bronze  is  the  memo- 
rial which  he  established  in  hearts — how  many  they  were!  —  which  he 
led  in  the  way  to  heaven.     Every  New  Testament  and  every  Psalter 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ROBERT  MORRISON.  819 

which  the  Hindoo  or  the  Persian  reads  in  his  own  language  is  a  remem- 
brancer of  the  confessor  and  faithful  witness,  who  spared  not  himself  nor 
counted  his  life  dear  to  him  as  he  stood  true  to  his  Master  until  death. 
Evangelical  missions,  when  asked  for  martyrs,  can  quietly  and  securely 
point  to  the  hero  whose  bones  whiten  in  Tokat.  —  H.  VM. 


LIFE  XXXVI.     ROBERT  MORRISON. 

A.    D.  1782-A.   D.  1833.       UNITED    PRESBYTERIAN, CHINA. 

The  scattered  notices  found  in  the  writings  of  the  peoples  in  "Western 
Asia  concerning  the  civilization,  numbers,  power,  and  arts  of  the  Chinese 
are  too  fragmentary  to  enable  us  to  gather  a  clear  idea  of  the  real  knowl- 
edge which  was  undoubtedly  possessed  of  that  race  up  to  the  time  of 
Christ.  The  distance  between  the  valleys  of  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Yangtse  was  so  enormous  that  the  difficulties  of  travel  by  land  or  sea 
prevented  direct  trade  and  intercourse  between  their  inhabitants ;  and 
hence  vague  and  absurd  rumors  and  notions  of  each  other's  manners  and 
resources  came  to  be  received  as  authentic  history.  These  notices  on 
the  part  of  the  Occidentals  generally  indicate  a  high  ideal  of  the  Chinese, 
while  the  few  records  extant  in  their  books  show  a  profound  ignorance 
of  the  Caucasian  nations.  It  is  with  this  exalted  conception  in  mind, 
therefore,  that  the  remarkable  prophecy  respecting  the  land  of  Sinim, 
found  in  Isaiah  xlix.  12,  foretelling  the  introduction  of  the  gospel  into 
China,  should  be  read.  It  seems  meet  and  proper,  too,  when  we  reflect 
on  the  antiquity,  populousness,  and  institutions  of  this  land,  that  this  ear- 
liest certain  mention  of  it  should  be  a  promise  of  its  belonging  one  day 
to  the  Redeemer's  kingdom. 

In  the  earliest  days  of  the  Christian  Church,  the  labors  of  the  Apostles 
and  their  near  disciples  were  directed  to  the  lands  lying  beyond  Parthia, 
into  Bactria  and  India,  if  we  may  trust  the  early  Syrian  records  collected 
by  Assemanius ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  Nestorian  Church  had  separated 
from  the  Eastern  as  a  distinct  branch,  in  the  fifth  century  and  afterwards, 
that  any  systematic  efforts  to  preach  the  gospel  among  the  Chinese  were 
commenced.  What  j^lans  those  churches  adopted  to  maintain  the  mission- 
ary societies,  select  or  train  their  agents,  support  and  guide  them  when 
in  the  field,  and  keep  up  that  mutual  knowledge  and  sympathy  in  them- 
selves and  their  missionaries,  without  which  both  would  become  disheart- 
ened and  fail,  we  have  no  satisfactory  records.  The  probabilities  are 
that  the  risks  of  travel  through  Central  Asia,  along  the  valley  of  the 
river  Tarim,  and  across  the  Desert  of  Gobi  into  the  regions  of  the  Yel- 
low River,  interfered  with  regular  intercourse,  and  compelled  the  mis- 
sionaries to  depend  chiefly  upon  their  own  resources  and  converts  to 


820  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

keep  up  their  work.  Yet  it  is  a  little  strange  that  the  records  and  results 
of  the  labors  of  the  Nestorian  missionaries  among  the  Chinese  for  a 
period  of  nearly  eight  hundred  years,  between  the  sixth  and  fourteenth 
centuries,  should  be  confined  to  a  single  tablet,  erected  at  Si-ugan  fu  in 
A.  D.  781,  containing  a  few  thousand  characters;  and  to  scattered  notices 
by  Marco  Polo,  Abu  Said,  and  Carpini,  of  some  weak  churches  in  Pe- 
king, Chinkiang,  and  Hangchau.  No  translations  of  any  part  of  the 
Scriptures,  no  tracts,  apologies,  hymns,  or  creeds  used  by  them,  and  few 
or  no  quotations  by  native  heathen  authors  from  such  writings,  have  yet 
been  met  with  in  China.  No  ruins  of  churches  or  monasteries,  nor  any 
vestiges  of  tombs  of  eminent  men,  have  yet  been  pointed  out  as  having 
once  belonged  to  the  Ki7ig  Kiao,  or  Illustrious  Religion,  as  this  faith  was 
called.  The  most  reasonable  explanation  is  that  both  priest  and  people 
gradually  fell  away  into  the  form,  from  having  lost  the  power,  of  the 
Cross.  Possessing  no  version  of  the  Bible  from  which  they  could  learn 
their  duty  and  their  hopes,  they  relapsed  into  idolatry. 

The  extent  of  the  missions  commenced  in  Northern  China  by  the 
Roman  Catholics  under  Corvino  and  his  successors,  A.  d.  1300-1369, 
during  the  Mongol  dynasty,  need  not  be  detailed  ;  for  their  churches 
seem  to  have  been  swept  away  amidst  the  troubles  ensuing  on  its  de- 
struction by  Hungwu,  founder  of  the  Ming  dynasty.  The  meagre  ac- 
counts left  to  us  indicate  that  their  work  was  chiefly  confined  to  the 
Mongols,  into  whose  language  the  New  Testament  was  translated ;  but 
no  permanent  traces  existed  when  Matthew  Ricci  and  his  associates 
arrived  in  Canton,  in  1581,  and  resumed  the  work.  That  work  has  been 
carried  on  since  Ricci  reached  Peking,  in  1601,  to  the  present  time,  with 
the  skill,  energy,  and  perseverance  which  characterize  the  papal  church, 
and  the  number  of  the  converts  is  now  to  be  reckoned  by  hundreds  of 
thousands.  Their  cathedrals,  churches,  convents,  chapels,  schools,  asy- 
lums, and  workshops,  suitable  to  their  plans  and  needs,  are  scattered 
throughout  the  eighteen  provinces  of  China. 

But  with  our  ideas  of  what  constitutes  the  essential  elements  of  the 
mission  enterprise  as  commanded  by  Christ,  we  cannot  select  Ricci  as  the 
typical  name  to  be  associated  as  leader  with  the  church  of  God  among 
the  Chinese.  In  all  the  human  qualifications  of  a  leader,  he  will  bear 
comparison  with  any  name  which  can  be  mentioned  as  connected  with 
the  cause  of  Christianity  in  China ;  but  neither  he  nor  his  associates  or 
successors  have  distinctly  preached  the  evangel  of  a  free  salvation  through 
faith  in  Christ.  They  have  never  prepared  and  systematically  given  the 
"Word  of  God  to  the  people  in  their  own  language ;  have  never  put  it  in 
front  as  the  revelation  of  God  to  man,  which  he  must  read  and  obey, 
because  it  contains  the  only  and  sufficient  law,  guide,  and  sanctions  for 
his  conduct  here,  and  the  foundation  of  his  hopes  hereafter.  Besides 
this  initial  defect  in  their  plan  of  missions,  the  Roman  Catholics  there, 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ROBERT   MORRISON.  821 

as  elsewhere,  have  put  forward  the  names  of  Mary  and  various  canon- 
ized saints  so  prominently  that  the  converts  hear  and  think  more  of  them 
and  their  virtues  than  they  do  of  Jesus ;  and  this  misplacement  is  further 
strengthened  in  ignorant  minds  by  the  images  and  pictures  set  up  in  all 
places  of  worship.  The  second  commandment  having  been  expurgated, 
the  converts  know  no  prohibition  restraining  them  from  paying  the  same 
worship  to  these  new  images  which  they  had  paid  to  their  old  idols ;  and 
this  notion  of  the  essential  likeness  between  the  two  is  confirmed  by  the 
similar  ceremonies  conducted  by  the  Buddhist  priest  in  his  pagoda  to  the 
foreign  priest  in  his  church. 

Notwithstanding  the  inculcation  by  the  Roman  Catholics  of  most  of 
the  great  truths  of  revelation,  we  must  still  decline  to  look  upon  them  as 
having  laid  the  foundations  of  the  church  of  Christ  in  China.  They  had 
the  field  wholly  to  themselves  up  to  about  1845,  and  during  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  spread  themselves  over  the  land,  acquiring  power, 
wealth,  and  official  jaosition,  to  a  degree  which  alarmed  the  government, 
and  often  led  it  to  adopt  harsh  measures  to  repress  their  schemes  and 
diminish  their  converts.  Judged  by  their  fruits,  however,  they  have  all 
along,  in  a  few  most  vital  i^oints,  laid  aside  the  commandments  of  God  to 
hold  the  traditions  of  men  ;  and  their  work  must  therefore  be  tested  by 
that  righteous  trial  to  which  God  will  bring  it  at  last,  and  show  whether 
it  has  a  place  in  the  living  temple  of  his  redeemed. 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  we  have  selected  the  name  of  Robert  Mor- 
rison to  lead  this  notice  of  the  foundation  of  the  church  of   „^  ^      ,    , 

The  true  leader 

Christ  in  China.  Though  he  died  only  a  comparatively  of  the  church  in 
short  time  ago,  the  interval  is  long  enough  to  judge  his  life- 
work  candidly  ;  for  the  subsequent  changes  there  have  been  so  great  as 
to  throw  his  life  and  times  back  into  the  past  almost  as  much  as  if  he  had 
lived  a  century  ago.  He  landed  at  Canton  when  the  restrictive  policy 
of  the  Chinese  government  was  in  its  full  strength,  and  its  spirit  of  se- 
clusion was  upheld  by  the  equally  restrictive  system  of  the  British  East 
India  Company.  The  open  propagandism  of  Christianity  was  impossible 
at  that  date,  and  its  profession  entailed  suspicion,  imprisonment,  perhaps 
death,  on  a  native.  The  simulacrum  of  imperial  power  at  Peking  began 
at  that  date  to  show  in  every  part  of  its  organization  that  the  energetic 
hand  of  the  Emperor  Kienlung  no  longer  guided  and  strengthened  the 
showy  bark  of  state,  which,  in  the  next  generation,  would  collide  dis- 
astrously with  the  successor  of  that  same  East  India  Company.  It  was 
time  for  the  preparatory  work  of  making  translations  and  dictionaries 
to  begin,  and  for  proof  to  be  given  that  the  Chinese  language  could  be 
made  to  convey  the  message  of  God  to  that  race. 

Robert  INIorrison,  the  son  of  James  and  Hannah  Morrisofi,  was  born 
January  o,  1782,  at  Buller's  Green,  Morpeth,  in  Northumberland,  and  was 
the  youngest  of  eight  children.     His  youth  was  spent  at  Newcastle-upon- 


822  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

Tyne,  and  he  was  early  apprenticed  to  his  father  in  the  trade  of  a  last 
and  boot-tree  maker,  until  he  began  his  regular  studies  for  the  ministry. 
He  enjoyed  the  counsel,  example,  and  constant  nurture  of  godly  parents 
while  at  home,  and  was  a  favorite  of  his  mother,  who  looked  to  him 
for  her  support  in  declining  years,  and  whom  he  dutifully  served  until  her 
death  in  1802.  His  parents  were  not  numbered  among  the  learned  or 
honorable,  but  they  taught  him  the  Holy  Scriptures  from  a  child,  and  his 
pastor  explained  their  truths,  and  catechised  him  in  his  knowledge  of 
them.  On  one  occasion,  in  his  thirteenth  year,  Mr.  Hutton  tried  him  on 
the  Scottish  version  of  the  one  hundred  and  nineteenth  Psalm,  which 
Robert  repeated  throughout  without  making  a  mistake,  although  not  al- 
lowed to  do  this  at  one  eifort.  A  memory  so  retentive  was  well  adapted 
for  acquiring  the  Chinese  language. 

In  1798,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  joined  himself  with  the  church  in 
which  his  father  was  an  elder,  and  soon  after  turned  his  thoughts  toward 
the  ministry.  His  op^jortunities  at  that  time  for  study  were  very  limited. 
His  daily  labors  in  the  shop  were  continued  from  six  in  the  morning  till 
the  same  hour  in  the  evening,  in  order  to  gain  an  hour  in  the  forenoon 
for  recitations  in  the  classical  languages.  His  tutor,  Mr.  Laidler,  a  minis- 
ter of  the  town,  so  cordially  seconded  his  efforts  to  fit  himself  for  his 
work  that  eighteen  months  after  he  was  able  to  enter  Hoxton  Academy 
with  creditable  preparation. 

A  youth  spent  in  such  an  uneventful  manner  furnishes  no  striking  in- 
cidents for  the  biographer.  It  is  like  the  natural  and  steady  growth  of 
an  oak,  which  by  and  by  endures  and  resists  the  storms  and  winters  be- 
cause its  roots  have  struck  deep  in  the  earth.  During  the  time  young 
Morrison  was  at  this  academy,  his  purpose  matured  to  become  a  mission- 
ary ;  and  the  record  of  his  feelings  and  hopes  shows  how  honest  and 
earnest  he  was  in  his  studies  and  devotions,  all  bringing  him  to  one  con- 
clusion. His  offer  was  accepted  by  the  directors  of  the  London  Mission- 
ary Society  in  May,  1804,  and  the  next  month  he  was  taken  into  their 
training  institution  at  Gosport. 

An  extract  or  two  from  his  letter  to  them  is  worth  quoting :  "  About 
His  account  of  seven  years  ago,  I  was  brought  to  rest  my  soul  on  Jesus 
his  call.  Christ  for  eternal  salvation.     I  should  say  that  about  two 

years  after  I  was  filled  with  an  ardent  desire  to  serve  the  Lord  Jesus  and 
the  spiritual  interests  of  my  fellow-men  in  any  way,  however  humble. 
It  was  then  I  formed  the  design  of  engaging  as  a  missionary.  I  can 
scarcely  call  it  a  design  ;  it  was  only  a  wish,  an  ardent  desire.  I  was 
then  in  an  obscure  situation,  nearly  three  hundred  miles  from  town,  and 
had  no  one  to  encourage  or  second  me.  For  a  long  time  I  thought  of 
it ;  the  crying  necessity  for  missionaries  dwelt  upon  my  mind.  I  prayed 
to  the  Lord  to  dispose  me  to  that  which  was  well-pleasing  in  his  sight, 
and  if  agreeable  to  his  will  to  fulfill  the  desire  of  my  heart.    I  conceived 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]       ROBERT  MORRISON.  823 

that  nothing  could  be  done  without  learning.  I  therefore  saved  a  little 
money  from  what  my  father  gave  me,  to  pay  a  teacher  of  Latin,  which  I 
learned  in  the  mornings  before  six  o'clock,  and  in  the  evenings  after  seven 
or  eight 

"  I  am  afraid  I  should  sin  were  I  to  keep  back.  I  do  not  consider  it 
as  good  and  laudable  only,  but  as  my  duty.  Knowing  that  Jesus  wills 
that  his  gospel  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world,  and  that  the  i-edeemed 
of  the  Lord  are  to  be  gathered  out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and 
people  ;  recollecting,  moreover,  the  command  of  Jesus  to  go  into  all  the 
world  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  I  conceive  it  my  duty,  as  a 
candidate  for  the  holy  ministry,  to  stand  candidate  for  a  station  where  la- 
borers are  most  needed." 

It  was  true  in  Morrison's  case,  as  it  has  been  with  so  many  other  men, 
that  the  power  of  princi{)le  can  sustain,  and  the  obligations  of  duty  can 
impel,  the  human  will  to  form  and  carry  out  high  jjurposes,  irrespective 
of  religion  ;  but  when  a  filial  fear  and  ardent  love  for  Christ  are  super- 
added, the  highest  stimulus  to  action  is  found.  One  radical  difference 
between  ancient  and  modern  civilization  springs  from  the  harmonious  co- 
operation of  these  three  elements  working  in  human  society ;  and  the 
missionary  cause  aims  to  apply  the  love  of  Christ  as  a  renovating  power 
to  all  phases  of  pagan,  Moslem,  and  papal  civilization  by  putting  God's 
law  and  truth  underneath  the  elementary  principle  and  sense  of  duty  al- 
ready in  them,  but  which  are  too  weak  alone  to  elevate  them. 

Soon  after  Morrison's  acceptance,  two  of  the  lay  directors  of  the  soci- 
ety, Messrs.  Hardcastle  and  Reyner,  proposed  that  a  mission  Appointed  to 
to  China  should  be  begun,  limiting  its  immediate  objects  to  ^Wna. 
acquiring  the  language  and  translating  the  Bible.  Their  proposal  was 
agreed  to,  and  Mr.  Morrison  was  designated  as  their  agent  to  commence 
it.  A  version  of  the  Word  of  God  appeared  to  these  men  all-important 
in  their  scheme  ;  and  they  justly  saw  in  that  initial  work  the  basis  and 
assurance  of  everything  requisite  to  the  evangelization  of  China.  "We 
may  fairly  ask  the  advocates  of  all  other  plans  of  missionary  labor  to 
show  that  any  of  them  have  ever  succeeded  in  saving  souls  or  elevating 
human  society. 

During  his  course  at  Gosport,  Mr.  Morrison  endeavored  to  learn  some- 
thing of  the  spoken  Chinese  language  from  a  Cantonese  named  Yong 
Sam-tak,  then  in  London ;  and  of  the  written  language  by  copying  a 
manuscript  Latin  and  Chinese  dictionary,  and  a  version  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  far  as  Hebrews.  Both  these  manuscripts  proved  of  great  as- 
sistance in  his  future  labors.  If  we  could  ever  learn  who  had  made  this 
translation,  his  name  and  labors  would  deservedly  be  held  in  esteem ;  but 
we  can  recognize  a  providence  in  placing  the  manuscript  where  it  came 
into  good  use,  and  thereby  honoring  the  work  of  the  unknown  scholar, 
who  was  probably  a  Roman  Catholic. 


824  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

In  addition  to  the  usual  studies,  Mr.  Morrison  took  a  course  iu  medi- 
cine, and  also  acquired  some  insight  into  astronomy,  with  a  view  to  their 
future  use.  It  is  not  surprising  that  he  wished  to  seek  and  intermeddle 
with  all  wisdom,  as  he  surveyed  the  vast  field  he  was  about  to  enter,  of 
which  so  little  accurate  knowledge  for  his  guidance  was  at  hand.  At 
this  time  the  East  India  Company  was  so  strongly  opposed  to  the  resi- 
dence and  work  of  missionaries  throughout  their  dominions  that  they  not 
only  refused  them  a  passage  to  India,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Morrison, 
would  not  even  take  them  as  passengers  to  a  country  like  China,  in  which 
they  had  no  territory.  It  is  hard,  at  this  distance  of  time,  to  appreciate 
the  force  of  their  sordid  fears,  and  still  less  to  sympathize  with  the  un- 
sound, selfish  arguments  which  they  urged  to  fortify  their  unchristian 
position,  —  a  position  from  which  they  were  not  finally  dislodged  until  the 
mutiny  of  1857  swept  them  and  their  policy  away  like  chaff  on  the  thresh- 
ing-floor when  driven  by  a  winter's  wind.  It  was  in  vain  to  ask  them 
for  a  passage  to  Canton,  and  the  society  sent  Mr.  Morrison  to  New  York, 
hoping  there  to  find  a  ship  to  take  him  to  his  destination. 

He  was  ordained  in  London,  January  8, 1807,  in  company  with  Messrs. 
Gordon  and  Lee,  two  missionaries  going  to  India  by  way  of  New  York. 
Qn  the  26th  Mr.  Morrison  received  a  letter  of  instructions,  signed  by 
Joseph  Hardcastle  and  George  Burder,  the  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
society,  in  which  they  gave  an  outline  of  their  purpose  in  sending  him 
forth,  and  stated  the  two  great  objects  to  be  kept  in  view  after  he  had 
learned  the  language.  "  When  this  is  done,"  they  remark,  "  you  may, 
probably,  soon  afterwards  begin  to  turn  this  attainment  into  a  direction 
which  may  be  of  extensive  use  to  the  world.  Perhaps  you  may  have  the 
honor  of  forming  a  Chinese  dictionary,  more  comprehensive  and  correct 
than  any  preceding  one,  or  the  stiH  greater  honor  of  translating  the 
sacred  Scriptures  into  a  language  spoken  by  a  third  part  of  the  human 

race We  hope  that  you  will  experience  all  the  beneficial  eflTects 

that  can  be  expected  to  flow  from  a  course  of  action  which  is  unbljxmable, 
discreet,  and  conciliating.  We  confide  with  much  cheerfulness  in  your 
conduct  as  the  representative  of  our  institution,  the  character  and  reputa- 
tion of  which  depend  greatly  on  the  disposition  and  proceedings  of  the 
persons  to  whom  its  countenance  is  afforded." 

With  these  high  objects  in  view,  and  a  heart  full  of  zeal  and  patience, 
Robert  Morrison  left  England  January  31,  1807,  the  first  Protestant  mis- 
sionary to  the  Chinese.  More  than  a  thousand  years  before,  the  Nes- 
torians  had  preached  the  outlines  of  Christianity  to  them ;  and  so  had 
their  successors  in  the  Papal  and  Greek  churches.  The  Jews  and  Mo- 
hammedans had  likewise  both  declared  the  existence  and  power  of  the 
one  true  God.  Their  teachings  and  example  had  all  failed  to  turn  the 
Chinese  from  idolatry,  for  neither  of  them  had  yet  put  fortli  the  Book, 
the  revelation  of  God's  law  and  salvation,  and  based  all  their  teachings 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         ROBERT  MORRISON.  825 

on  its  sanctions  and  promises,  as  tliey  pointed  erring  souls  to  the  cross  of 
Christ. 

On  arriving  in  New  York,  after  a  rough  passage  of  eighty  days,  Mr. 
Morrison  and  his  companions  were  received  by  Divie  Be-  j^  j^  j^^^^  -^^^^ 
thune.  Rev.  Dr.  Mason,  Robert  Ralston,  and  other  friends  '^^^y- 
of  missions,  who  assisted  them  all  in  getting  other  ships,  and  courteously 
entreated  them  during  their  stay  in  America.  Mr.  Morrison  was  favored 
by  a  letter  from  James  Madison,  then  secretary  of  state,  to  Mr.  Carring- 
ton,  the  United  States  consul  at  Canton ;  and  the  agreeable  acquaint- 
ances whom  he  made  during  his  sojourn  did  not  forget  him  when  in 
China.  He  obtained  a  passage  in  the  Trident,  whose  captain  charged 
him  only  for  his  proportion  of  the  stores.  An  anecdote  is  recorded 
of  him  on  the  day  of  his  departure,  which  exhibits  the  view  generally 
taken  of  his  enterprise  by  worldly  men,  and  his  own  sense  of  it.  "When 
he  was  going  down  to  the  wharf  to  embark,  he  stopped  in  at  the  counting- 
house  of  the  ship-owner.  After  all  business  matters  were  arranged,  the 
latter  turned  to  Morrison  with  a  sardonic  smile,  saying,  'And  so,  Mr. 
Morrison,  you  really  expect  that  you  will  make  an  impression  on  the  idol- 
atry of  the  great  Chinese  empire  ? '  '  No,  sir,'  said  Morrison,  with  more 
than  his  usual  sternness,  '  I  expect  God  will.' " 

He  sailed  on  the  12th  of  May,  and  the  leisure  of  the  long  voyage  al- 
lowed him  opportunity  to  progress  in  Chinese,  with  the  help  of  Yong 
Sam-tak;  so  that  he  arrived  in  Canton,  September  7th,  with  rather  more 
knowledge  of  that  language,  probably,  than  any  of  his  successors.  His 
coming  in  an  American  ship  enabled  him  to  land  there  as  an  j^^^^^  m  China 
American;  and  his  friend.  Sir  George  Staunton,  advised  as  an  American. 
him,  under  the  circumstances,  to  remain  where  he  was  in  the  American 
factory  of  Messrs.  Milnor  and  Bull,  on  the  terms  they  offered  him.  This 
was  partly  to  avoid  the  notice  of  the  Chinese  officials  and  Ilong-mer- 
chants,  and  also  to  relieve  the  British  authorities  in  the  East  India  Com- 
pany of  the  duty,  (as  they  thought  it)  of  immediately  inquiring  into  his 
objects ;  for  no  British  subject  was  allowed  to  stay  there  but  on  account 
of  trade. 

Mr.  Carrington  also  gave  him  valuable  assistance  and  good  counsel  as 
to  his  course.  Thus  both  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  aided  him 
from  the  time  he  left  home  till  he  settled  down  in  his  own  lodgings  at 
Canton ;  and  through  them  he  was  enabled  to  begin  his  work  in  peace, 
and  secure  such  countenance  in  it  that  he  had  no  feai-s  of  being  imme- 
diately sent  out  of  the  country.  These  two  nations  have  ever  since 
cooperated  in  their  direct  efforts  to  promote  the  same  good  end. 

At  that  time  Chinese  officials  put  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  learn- 
ing the  language,  and  a  native  scholar  who  ventured  to  assist  a  foreigner 
in  doing  so  ran  the  risk  of  being  branded  as  a  han  hien,  or  traitor,  and 
exposed  to  heavy  exactions.     Mr.  Morrison's  ability  to  talk  a  little  Latin 


826         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

served  liim  in  good  stead,  and  ha  obtained  the  aid  of  two  or  three  schol- 
ars, one  of  whom  spoke  Latin  fluently ;  but  their  high  charges  and  other 
great  expenses  of  living  were  a  source  of  anxiety,  lest  it  should  discour- 
age his  friends  in  England.  The  Romish  clergy  in  Macao  would  not 
permit  him  to  reside  there  to  carry  on  his  work.  He  therefore  lived  for 
three  months  very  quietly  in  two  rooms  on  the  ground-floor  of  Messrs. 
Milnor  and  Bull's  factory,  in  Canton,  dressed  in  the  native  costume, 
associated  almost  entirely  with  the  natives,  ate  with  his  teacher,  and 
devoted  himself  so  assiduously  to  his  studies  that  his  health  began  to 
suffer.  His  good  sense,  however,  soon  taught  him  that  such  things  were 
more  likely  to  attract  unpleasant  attention  than  to  promote  his  object, 
and  he  laid  them  aside.  The  propriety  of  adopting  the  Chinese  dress 
has  since  been  often  discussed.  The  Roman  Catholics  are  all  required 
to  put  it  on,  and  many  of  the  German  Protestant  missionaries  prefer  it; 
but  now  that  foreigners  openly  travel  over  the  country,  it  rather  attracts 
than  eludes  popular  observation,  and  has  simply  its  cheapness  and  con- 
venience to  recommend  it. 

Morrison  now  obtained  rooms  of  his  own  above  the  ground-floor, 
and  was  freed  from  anxiety  about  the  adverse  action  of  the  company's 
committee  in  respect  to  his  being  allowed  to  live  at  Canton,  of  the  pro- 
priety of  which  they  claimed  to  be  the  sole  judges.  At  this  time,  and 
for  nearly  forty  years  after,  all  foreigners  residing  there  were  restricted 
by  the  Chinese  authorities  to  certain  houses  along  the  river-side,  called 
collectively  the  Shih-san  Hang,  or  Thirteen  Factories ;  so  that  he  had  no 
choice  of  getting  cheaper  lodgings  among  the  natives  in  the  city  or  sub- 
urbs. The  chief  and  members  of  the  company  aided  him  with  books,  and 
in  many  ways  individually  showed  their  sympathy  with  his  objects ;  pro- 
cured rooms  for  him  at  Macao  during  the  summer  months,  when  he  had 
become  so  weak  that  he  could  hardly  walk,  and  intimated  their  willing- 
ness to  ask  for  aid  in  printing  his  contemplated  dictionary.  He  was  fur- 
ther actuated  by  a  desire  not  to  implicate  his  servants  or  teachers  with 
their  own  officials,  and  thus  carried  his  habits  of  economy  and  seclusion 
to  such  a  degree  as  to  hazard  his  mission  and  life  by  his  extreme  pri- 
vacy. 

In  October,  after  having  settled  himself  for  the  winter  on  his  return 
from  Macao,  he  was  obliged  suddenly  to  leave  Canton,  owing  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Admiral  Drury  in  his  attempt  to  protect  Macao  as  a  Portu- 
guese colony  against  the  expected  attacks  of  the  French  fleet,  which 
irritated  the  Chinese  rulers,  and  led  to  the  Committee  ordering  all  British 
subjects  away  from  Canton  to  Macao  as  a  precautionary  measure.  His 
disappointment  was  great  at  this  interruption,  but  he  found  opportunity 
still  to  continue  his  labors,  keep  up  his  Sabbath  services  with  his  ser- 
vants, and  take  better  care  of  his  health.  He  became  acquainted  also 
with  the  family  of  John  Morton,  from  India,  whose  daughter  Mary  he 


Cent.  XVH.-XIX.]         ROBERT  MORRISON.  827 

married  on  the  20th  of  February,  1809.     On  that  clay,  too,  he  received 
and  accepted  the  .offer  made  by  the  East  India  Company   interpreter  of 
to  become  their  official  interpreter  at  Canton  on  a  yearly   c'jimpan  ^""^^ 
stipend  of  five  hundred  pounds. 

These  two  events  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  his  life,  and  relieved 
him  from  the  harassing  uncertainty  as  to  his  ability  to  remain  in  China, 
or  commence  his  mission  anew  in  Penang  or  Malacca,  to  which  he  was 
even  then  looking.  His  lonely  life  was  now  enlivened  by  the  comforts 
and  company  of  a  household ;  his  honest  fears  of  involving  the  society 
in  expense  were  removed  by  a  liberal  allowance ;  and  his  anxiety  lest 
his  native  assistants  should  leave  him,  or  become  implicated  by  helping 
him,  was  abated  by  his  position  as  official  translator  to  the  company. 

His  unsolicited  appointment  to  this  responsible  position  within  eight- 
een months  after  his  arrival  is  the  best  possible  testimony  to  his  scholar- 
ship, prudence,  and  consistent  character.  He  himself  thought  that  his 
acceptance  of  the  post  might  tend  to  remove  any  aversion  of  the  direct- 
ors of  the  company  to  missionaries,  when  they  found  that  they  were 
ready  to  serve  their  interests ;  but  in  this  he  was  quite  mistaken.  The 
same  policy  which  in  India  led  them  to  uphold  idolatry  actuated  them 
against  all  missionary  efforts,  and  no  favor  was  ever  shown  Morrison  or 
his  associates, in  China;  nor  was  he  himself  ever  rated  as  a  covenanted 
sei'vant  of  the  company,  but  kept  in  the  inferior  grade  of  a  hired  trans- 
lator. He  was  once  curtly  dismissed,  in  1815,  without  the  least  chance 
being  given  of  explaining  his  conduct,  on  the  charge  of  having  printed 
and  published  in  China  the  New  Testament,  together  with  several  relig- 
ious tracts,  which,  being  effected  in  defiance  of  an  edict  of  the  emperor 
of  China,  might,  they  apprehended,  give  rise  to  serious  mischief  (!)  to  the 
British  trade  in  China.  However,  the  order  was  not  carried  into  effect 
in  China  till  he  had  defended  his  course,  when  it  was  silently  withdrawn. 
He  continued  to  serve  the  company  for  twenty-five  years,  till  their 
Chinese  establishment  was  dissolved.  At  this  time,  and  ever  after,  this 
same  company  was  doing  all  it  could  to  introduce  opium  into  China,  in 
contempt  of  repeated  edicts  of  successive  emperors,  by  raising  and  pre- 
paring it  in  India  for  smugglers  to  take  out. 

Mr.  Morrison's  subsequent  course  showed  the  same  diligence,  pru- 
dence, and  piety  which  we  have  already  seen  to  characterize  him ;  and 
in  this  way  he  was  daily  preaching  to  the  natives  around  him  in  a  prac- 
tical manner  most  intelligible  to  them.  The  moral  habits  of  most  for- 
eigners there  exhibited  great  disregard  of  the  precepts  which  he  was 
inculcating;  but  his  example  had  its  influence,  while  he  himself  lamented 
the  little  success  of  his  labors.  It  should  be  stated  that  he  was  not  by 
nature  calculated  to  win  and  interest  the  skeptical  or  the  fastidious ;  for 
he  had  no  sprightliness  or  pleasantry,  no  versatility  or  wide  acquaint- 
ance with  letters,  and  was  respected  rather  than  beloved  by  those  who 
cared  little  for  the  things  nearest  his  heart. 


828  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

Though  now  much  occupied  with  official  duties,  he  never  ceased  to 
explain  and  urge  t-he  claims  of  the  gospel  upon  all  natives  who  were  in 
his  employ,  but  even  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  had  no  opportunity  to 
preach  them  publicly.  These  private  ministrations  gradually  became 
well  known  throughout  the  limited  circle  of  natives  connected  with  for- 
eigners, and  during  a  course  of  years  gave  his  household  a  religious  char- 
acter, the  more  noticeable  from  its  peculiarity. 

It  is  not  easy  to  convey  a  just  idea  of  the  contemptuous  treatment 
with  which  the  officials  of  that  day  "  managed "  foreigners  at  Canton. 
They  saw  that  one  way  to  maintain  their  authority  was  to  j^revent  them 
from  learning  the  language  by  punishing  all  natives  who  assisted  them 
in  any  way,  sold  them  books,  or  cut  blocks  to  print  their  translations. 
Even  the  bishop  of  Macao  issued  an  anathema  against  those  who  should 
have  intercourse  with  Morrison,  or  give  him  Chinese  books ;  and  the 
company's  committee  would  not  have  hesitated  to  deport  him,  if  the  local 
authorities  had  complained  against  him  for  propagandism.  The  great 
object  to  be  gained  at  first  was  to  keep  a  footing  in  the  country ;  and 
under  such  circumstances  his  faith  and  patience  were  best  exhibited  by 
proving  in  his  conduct  that  he  was  "  inoffensive  and  harmless,"  as  he 
says,  in  a  letter  of  December  4,  1809,  he  had  been  reported  to  be  among 
the  heathen. 

The  directors  of  the  society,  when  alluding  to  his  officinal  position, 
remark,  "  We  do  not  wish  that  honorable  and  even  apparently  advan- 
tageous connections  of  a  political  nature  should  be  pursued  and  enjoyed 
by  our  missionaries,  if  they  at  all  be  found  to  interfere  with  their  des- 
ignation and  proposed  exertions  for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  heathen 
among  whom  they  dwell  ;  but  there  appears  to  be  a  peculiarity  in  your 
situation  and  circumstances  which  makes  a  degree  of  political  patronage 
and  support  almost  essential  to  the  existence  of  your  mission,  and  to  the 
facility  and  support  of  its  operations." 

This  principle  has  been  adopted  by  all  missionary  societies,  and  its 
propriety  cannot  be  disputed.  Mr.  Morrison,  about  this  time,  printed 
one  thousand  copies  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  followed  by  a  version 
of  Luke  and  some  tracts  to  explain  Christian  truth.  A  grammar  of 
the  language  was  prepared  in  1811,  but  not  printed  at  Serampore  until 
1815,  owing,  among  other  things,  to  the  want  of  Chinese  type;  and 
progress  was  made  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible  and  preparation  of  the 
dictionary.  On  the  4th  of  July,  1813,  he  was  cheered  by  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Milne,  the  only  colleagues  from  Great  Britain 
who  ever  joined  him  in  China.  Their  arrival  was  reported  to  the  Por- 
tuguese authorities,  who  in  full  senate  decreed  that  they  should  not 
remain.  The  governor  sent  for  Mr.  IMorrison,  and  announced  that  the 
court  had  ordered  him  to  send  Mr.  Milne  away,  that  it  was  contrary  to 
their  religion  for  him  to  stay  in  Macao,  and  that  the  East  India  Com- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ROBERT  MORRISON.  829 

pany  had  requested  the  court  not  to  allow  Englishmen  in  the  colony.^ 
A  written  application  to  the  chief  of  the  company  for  Mr.  Milne  to  be 
regarded  as  assistant  translator  for  a  limited  time  was  rejected.  He 
therefore  set  out  for  Canton  sixteen  days  after  lauding,  as  the  Chinese 
authorities  were  not  so  obstructive  as  the  Portuguese  or  British.  He 
remained  there  four  months,  when  he  started  on  a  voyage  through  the 
Indian  Archipelago  to  find  the  best  place  to  establish  a  mission  and  carry 
on  its  work  jjublicly  and  unopposed.  He  returned  to  China  in  Septem- 
ber, 1814,  and  soon  after  settled  at  Malacca.  This  excellent  man  wore 
himself  out,  laboring  beyond  his  strength,  and  shortening  his  life  by 
attempting  too  many  things.  He  died  in  June,  1822,  leaving  behind  him 
an  admirable  resume  of  the  outlines  of  Christianity  in  a  tract  called 
"  The  Two  Friends,"  through  which  he  yet  speaketh  to  myriads  of  Chi- 
nese. 

In  1814,  the  first  part  of  the  Chinese  and  English  Dictionary  was 
in  such  a  state  of  forwardness  as  to  warrant  Mr.  Morrison  to  begin  print- 
ing it,  under  Mr.  Thom's  superintendence,  as  soon  as  the  necessary  Chi- 
nese type  could  be  made.  This  type  was  all  cut  by  hand  with  chisels 
on  small  blocks  of  tin  or  type-metal  cast  in  suitable  sizes,  and  the  font 
was  added  to  as  the  work  required.  It  was  employed  in  many  books, 
and  gradually  increased,  till  it  contained  nearly  twenty-five  thousand 
characters  and  about  a  hundred  thousand  separate  types  of  two  sizes. 
After  constant  use  for  forty-two  years,  half  the  time  in  possession  of  Mr. 
S.  W.  Williams,  then  printer  of  the  American  Board  at  Canton,  to  whom 
it  had  been  given  by  the  British  superintendent  of  trade,  it  was  burned 
theie  in  December,  1856.  It  was  by  far  the  most  expensive  font  of 
type  ever  made. 

On  the  IGth  of  July,  1814,  "at  a  spring  of  water  issuing  from  the  foot 
of  a  lofty  hill  by  the  sea-side  in  Macao,  away  from  human 

:  .  .  .  Morrison  bap- 

observation,"  jMorrison  baptized  Tsai  Ako,  the  first  convert  tizes  the  first 
to  the  Christian  religion  whom  he  had  welcomed  to  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  faith.  He  had  this  happiness  only  a  few  times  afterwards. 
In  the  early  part  of  that  year  he  sent  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  in  Chi- 
nese to  the  Bible  Society  in  London,  which  made  a  grant  of  five  hundred 
pounds  for  printing  it.  In  his  letter  he  fully  acknowledges  the  aid  he 
had  received  from  the  manuscript  copied  at  the  British  Museum  in  trans- 
lating the  Acts  and  Pauline  epistles,  the  other  books  being  entirely  his 
own  work.  At  this  time  he  was  also  occupied  in  superintending  the 
printing  of  the  dictionary,  in  addition  to  his  ofiicial  duties  and  mission 
labors  on  the  Sabbath.     His  constraint  in  the  latter  branch  led  him  to 

1  To  show  the  change  since  that  date,  it  may  be  stated  that  in  1857,  when  the  clergy 
objected  to  the  American  missionaries  opening  chapels  in  the  Bazaar,  the  governor  replied 
that  they  had  a  perfect  right  to  preach  to  the  Chinese  in  any  way  they  pleased,  and  he 
should  not  interfere.  Many  of  the  Portuguese  dropped  in  from  time  to  time  at  the  serv- 
ices. 


830         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

cast  about  for  some  means  of  enlarging  their  sphere,  and  in  October:, 
1815,  he  issued  proposals  to  Christians  in  Great  Britain  to  establish  by 
and  by  a  college,  a  press,  a  missionary  society,  and  a  theological  seminary 
at  Malacca.  There  had  been,  at  that  date,  no  opportunity  for  the  trial, 
and  he  could  not  understand,  as  we  can  now,  that  the  basis  of  a  Christian 
people  was  first  wanted  to  furnish  such  institutions  with  a  suitable  soil 
for  their  natural  growth. 

On  the  13t.h  of  July,  1816,  he  started  for  Peking  as  interpreter  to 
Lord  Amherst's  embassy,  in  which  the  chief  labor  of  the  correspondence 
and  interpreting  devolved  on  him.  On  the  return  to  Canton  overland,  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  see  the  Chinese  people  in  their  own  country,  and 
ascertain  the  views  of  the  officials  on  many  points  connected  with  foreign 
countries.  He  resumed  his  varied  labors  on  his  return,  January  1,  1817, 
and  went  on  with  them  far  removed  from  his  wife,  then  in  England  for 
her  health,  and  from  his  two  children.  He  was  this  year  honored  by 
the  University  of  Glasgow  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

Mr.  Milne  was  now  able  to  assist  him  in  the  translation  of  the  Old 
Completes  the  Testament,  which  was  completed  on  the  29th  of  November, 
Bible  in  Chinese.  1819;  Milne  translated  ten  books,  and  each  revised  the 
other's  work.  The  Bible  Society  defrayed  the  cost  of  printing  it,  and 
then,  as  now,  evinced  a  lively  interest  in  aiding  its  distribution.  In  a  long 
letter  of  this  date  to  the  directors  of  the  London  society,  Morrison 
modestly  recounted  the  difficulties  of  his  work,  described  the  principle  he 
had  adopted  in  rendering  the  original,  and  acknowledged  his  consciousness 
of  its  imperfections  as  a  first  translation.  He  ends  his  letter  with  an  ex- 
pression of  his  "  trust  that  the  gloomy  darkness  of  pagan  skepticism  will  be 
dispelled  by  the  day-spring  from  on  high,  and  that  the  gilded  idols  of 
Buddh  and  the  numberless  images  which  fill  the  land  will  one  day  assur- 
edly fall  to  the  ground  before  the  force  of  God's  "Word,  as  the  idol  Dagon 
fell  before  the  ark.  These  are  my  anticipations,  although  there  appears 
not  the  least  opening  at  present."  His  hopes  were  well  founded ;  for 
since  his  death  the  distribution  of  the  "Word  of  God  has  reached  the  ut- 
most bounds  of  the  empire,  and  its  truths  are  discussed  by  people  of 
every  rank  and  condition. 

The  dictionary  was  finished  in  November,  1823,  at  an  expense  of  twelve 
thousand  pounds  for  seven  hundred  copies,  generously  defrayed  by  the 
East  India  Company.  It  consists  of  six  quarto  volumes,  numbering  in 
all  four  thousand  five  hundred  and  ninety-five  pages;  it  is  arranged  in 
three  parts,  namely,  one  Chinese-English  part  according  to  the  radicals 
and  one  according  to  the  syllables,  and  an  English- Chinese  part.  The 
undertaking  was  commenced  on  too  great  a  scale,  and  towards  its  close 
the  author  was  obliged  to  hurry  through  his  task ;  so  that  in  fact  the  syl- 
labic part  proved  to  be  the  only  really  useful  portion.  This  was  re- 
printed in  1855  in  one  octavo  volume  at  the  mission-press  in  bhaughai. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         ROBERT  MORRISON.  831 

Both  these  important  objects  had  been  proposed  to  him  on  his  depart- 
ure from  England  in  1807 ;  and  by  the  goodness  of  God  in  preserving 
his  health,  and  the  hberal  aid  of  the  Bible  Society  and  the  East  India 
Company  in  printing  the  two  books,  he  was  enabled,  on  his  return  in 
1824,  to  bring  complete  copies  with  him.  Other  minor  publications  in 
Chinese  and  English,  issued  during  the  same  period  of  sixteen  years,  at- 
tested his  industry  and  erudition. 

While  pursuing  his  own  labors,  he  sought  to  interest  his  personal 
friends  and  the  Christian  public  in  his  enterprise  of  establishing  the 
Anglo-Chinese  College  at  Malacca,  under  the  supervision  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  and  the  personal  care  of  Dr.  Milne.  The  foundation 
was  laid  November  11,  1818,  by  Colonel  Farquhar.  Dr.  Milne  repre- 
sented the  founder  of  the  college,  delivering  an  appropriate  speech,  and 
mentioning  the  chief  object  in  view  in  opening  it  to  be  the  reciprocal 
cultivation  of  Chinese  and  European  literature  by  students  of  either  lan- 
guage, especially  those  designed  for  mission  work.  Malay  was  subse- 
quently introduced  to  some  extent.  To  this  end  Dr.  Morrison  gave  lib- 
erally himself  (he  told  his  brother  more  than  half  of  his  property),  and 
induced  others  to  aid  his  philanthropic  views.  Buildings  were  put  up, 
and  a  promising  beginning  was  made  ;  but  a  few  years'  experience  proved 
that  the  project  was  premature  in  that  region,  and  the  institution  never 
rose  above  a  grammar-school  up  to  the  time  of  its  dissolution  and  of  tlie  re- 
moval of  the  mission  to  Hongkong  (1845).  It  accomplished  enough, 
however,  to  reward  its  founders  and  teachers  for  their  labors,  and  several 
works  for  aiding  in  the  study  of  Chinese  and  Malay  were  printed  by  its 
professors.  The  number  of  native  students  seldom  exceeded  thirty,  one 
of  whom,  named  Show-teh,  was  afterwards  employed  at  Peking  as  inter- 
preter. In  January,  1823,  Dr.  Morrison  visited  Singapore  and  Malacca, 
and  cooperated  with  Sir  Stamford  Raffles,  the  governor  of  the  former 
colony,  in  starting  the  Singapore  Institution,  which  has  existed  with 
varying  degrees  of  efficiency  to  the  present  time. 

On  reaching  Malacca,  he  thus  gives  expression  to  his  feelings  :  "  The 
college  and  the  native  students  gave  me  great  satisfaction ;  the  Chinese 
youths  sang  the  one  hundredth  Psalm,  which  was  composed  in  Chinese 
by  my  former  assistant  Koh.  Finding  the  good  use  which  had  been 
made  by  my  dear  William  of  my  Chinese  books  and  my  funds,  and  the 
freedom  of  worshiping  the  blessed  God  without  mandarin  interference, 
altogether  produced  on  my  mind  a  most  pleasing  effect.  Oh,  how  grate- 
ful should  I  be !  I  hope  this  work  will  never  cease  till  China  be  evan- 
gelized, and  then  it  will  be  useless." 

While  at  these  two  British  colonies,  he  diligently  aided  in  giving  greater 
efficiency  to  the  college  by  encouraging  its  officers  and  students,  and  pre- 
paring books  for  the  latter.  He  also  lifted  up  his  voice  with  the  governor 
for  the  abolition  of  licensing  gambhng  shops  and  of  the  slave-trade,  both 


832  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

of  which  were  upheld  before  that  time.  His  return  to  China  was  to  a 
lonely  home,  for  Mrs.  Morrison  had  died  in  June,  1821,  and  the  two 
children  had  been  sent  to  England.  This  induced  him  to  find  opportunity 
to  visit  his  native  land.  Few  missionaries  have  ever  gone  home  who 
had  better  earned  the  respect  and  approval  of  the  Christian  world.  The 
mission  work  in  China  was  left  in  the  hands  of  a  newly  ordained  native 
evangelist,  Liang  Afah,  a  convert  of  Dr.  Milne's,  whose  piety  and  zeal 
were  proved  during  nearly  thirty  years  of  faithful  service  among  his 
countrymen,  sometimes  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  preaching  and  itinerating, 
as  well  as  composing,  printing,  and  distributing  tracts. 

Dr.  Morrison  reached  England  in  March,  1824,  bringing  with  him  ten 
Reception  in  thousand  volumcs  of  Chinese  books,  which  were,  after  con- 
Engiand.  siderable  detention,  released  from  bond   without  duty,  and 

finally  placed  in  University  College,  London.  Fie  was  honored  by  the 
court  of  directors  with  a  public  dinner,  and  soon  after  presented  to  the 
king,  George  Fourth,  to  whom  he  offered  a  copy  of  the  Bible  in  Chinese 
and  a  map  of  Peking.  The  authorities  of  Newcastle  gave  a  public  din- 
ner in  honor  of  his  visit ;  and  his  time,  strength,  and  abilities  were  all 
taxed  to  the  utmost,  to  reply  to  and  satisfy  tlie  demands  made  on  him. 
Before  he  left  England  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
and,  what  he  regarded  as  more  honorable,  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society.  It  was  at  the  annual  religious  anniversaries  in 
Loudon  that  the  heartiest  congratulations  on  the  results  of  his  labors 
were  extended  to  him ;  and  probably  no  missionary  ever  received  so 
marked  an  ovation  by  all  classes  of  his  countrymen  as  did  Robert  Mor- 
rison in  the  year  1824,  owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  combined  religious  and 
political  duties  he  had  fulfilled  in  China.  In  Paris  distinguished  men 
paid  him  attention,  and  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  too,  he  successfully  ad- 
vocated the  cause  of  missions  and  the  college  at  Malacca,  to  which 
Lord  Kingsborough  gave  fifteen  hundred  pounds  as  a  permanent  fund. 
He  also  set  forth  the  desirableness  of  establishing  a  professorship  of 
Chinese  in  one  of  the  universities,  urging  as  one  argument  for  it  that 
as  the  British  possessions  in  the  East  gradually  approach  the  Chinese 
empire  and  Cochinchina,  a  knowledge  of  the  Chinese  language  seems  de- 
sirable to  his  majesty's  government. 

In  November,  1824,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Eliza  Armstrong,  and  with 
his  two  children  was  preparing  to  return  to  Canton,  when  he  was  urged 
to  remain  in  England  another  year  in  order  to  assist  in  starting  a  lan- 
guage institution,  at  which  all  the  living  languages  were  to  be  studied, 
in  aid  of  the  propagation  of  Christianity  throughout  the  world,  a  project 
which  met  with  favor  among  good  men  acquainted  with  India.  The  so- 
ciety was  formed  June  14,  1825;  suitable  buildings  were  rented  in  Hol- 
Itorn  for  students,  and  Dr.  Morrison  lectured  and  taught  three  months 
on  the  Chinese  language  to  fourteen  students.     It  did  not,  however,  en- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ROBERT  MORRISON.  833 

dure,  and  within  three  years  was  given  up.  The  objects  were  too  general 
and  vague  to  meet  the  wants  of  any  one  class,  and  it  is  better,  on  the 
whole,  for  a  missionary  to  learn  a  language  where  he  is  to  speak  it.  A 
special  society  for  training  and  supporting  women  in  mission  work  in  pagan 
lands  was  advocated  by  him,  and  he  taught  three  young  ladies  in  Chinese 
while  in  London,  to  show  his  earnestness  in  the  project,  and  to  fit  them 
for  their  life  work.  Such  a  society  was  formed  a  few  years  afterwards, 
and  the  example  of  these  young  ladies  aided  materially  in  encouraging 
its  founders. 

In  such  labors  and  others  of  a  kindred  sort  two  years  passed  away, 
when  the  time  approached  for  him  to  embark  on  his  return  to  China. 
His  visit  had  aroused  and  increased  the  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  China  throughout  the  Christian  people  of  England,  and  at  his  depart- 
ure he  was  assured  by  words  of  counsel  and  sympathy  from  public  bodies 
and  private  individuals  that  his  efforts  had  not  been  in  vain.  He  sailed 
on  the  5th  of  May,  1826,  and  reached  Macao  September  19th,  having 
spent  a  fortnight  at  Singapore.  Here  he  found  that  the  buildings  of  the 
Siugajjore  Institution  were  not  so  far  finished  as  to  admit  of  receiving 
pupils,  that  insufficient  funds  remained  to  complete  them;  and,  what  was 
worse,  that  little  interest  was  taken  in  the  object.  He  felt  this  failure 
deeply,  as  in  it  he  saw  the  loss  of  five  thousand  nine  hundred  dollars 
which  he  had  contributed  to  the  establishment  of  the  school.  When  he 
reached  China,  his  colleague,  Liang  Afah,  was  glad  to  greet  him,  and 
showed  him  three  publications  prepared  during  his  absence.  After  a  few 
days  he  gathered  around  him  those  who  had  formerly  served  him  ;  others 
known  in  earlier  days  also  came  to  his  services.  He  concluded,  from 
what  he  could  gather,  that  the  influence  of  divine  truth  on  their  minds 
had  deejjened,  and  no  serious  obstacle  had  prevented  Liang  Afah  from 
making  known  the  truth.  The  members  of  the  company,  unsolicited,  con- 
tributed five  hundred  pounds  for  the  college  at  Malacca ;  and  he  soon 
found  congenial  work  and  society,  though  the  old  endeared  friends  had 
mostly  departed.  His  official  duties  in  the  factory,  his  efforts  to  extend 
his  missionary  influence,  correspondence  with  the  brethren  in  other  sta- 
tions, and  work  on  a  projected  commentary  on  the  Scriptures  and  revis- 
ion of  his  translation,  together  furnished  occupation  for  all  his  time.  His 
letters  to  his  wife  at  Macao  all  indicate  his  sense  of  the  paramount  im- 
portance of  the  mission  work,  and  he  was  happy  in  seeing  its  beginnings 
in  Java,  Siam,  and  Sumatra. 

In  February,  1830,  he  welcomed  Messrs.  Bridgman  and  Abeel  as  the 
first  fellow-workers  from  the  American  churches,  who  were  Welcomes  the 
succeeded  by  Messrs.  Stevens,  Tracy,  and  Williams,  before  ^m' frim Tmer- 
he  died  ;  his  English  colleagues  were  all  distributed  in  the  ■'='*■ 
Archipelago.  His  reflections  upon  the  arrival  of  the  first  two  indicate 
the  longing  of  his  heart  for  congenial  society :  "  My  own  health  and 
53 


834  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

strength  begin  to  fail ;  but  as  I  am  going  off  the  stage,  I  rejoice  that  it 
has  pleased  the  Lord  to  send  others  to  continue  the  work."  His  jjosi- 
tion  in  the  factory  had  been  made  so  irksome  by  his  superiors  that  he 
wrote  out  his  resignation  as  an  alternative  of  relief  from  their  interfer- 
ence. He  had  also  recently  lost  six  thousand  dollars  by  a  failure.  Still 
he  continued  at  his  Chinese  writings,  and  prepared  a  series  of  Scripture 
lessons  as  a  compend  of  Biblical  truth,  and  a  miscellaneous  compilation 
of  knowledge  called  the  "  Domestic  Instructor,"  the  type  of  both  being 
cut  at  Canton.  He  issued  from  the  company's  press  a  small^  English- 
Chinese  vocabulary  in  the  Canton  dialect,  which  was  of  some  use  to  the 
trading  community.  The  commentary  was  never  completed.  He  also 
aided  Mr.  Bridgman  in  filling  the  pages  of  the  "  Chinese  Repository,"  a 
monthly  magazine  devoted  to  the  diffusion  of  information  about  the  far 
East,  and  wrote  translations  from  the  Chinese  for  newspapers  at  Canton 
and  Malacca.  These  comprise  all  the  important  works  he  published  dur- 
ing the  eight  years  after  his  return. 

As  his  strength  declined,  he  was  assisted  in  his  translating  labors  by 
his  oldest  son,  John  Robert,  whom  he  had  trained  for  his  successor,  and 
cheered  by  the  brightening  prospects  of  the  diffusion  and  reception  of  the 
gospel  in  China.  The  Bible,  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  other  books,  had 
been  distributed  along  the  coasts  of  China  and  in  the  Indian  Archipelago, 
and  thus  he  saw  that  the  field  was  gradually  opening.  His  liberality 
was  constant,  and  his  plans  for  doing  good  found  a  few  co-woi-kers  among 
the  foreigners.  One  such  plan  was  to  open  a  coffee-shop  in  Canton 
for  sailors  coming  up  from  the  ships,  to  prevent  them  going  to  the  Chi- 
nese grog-shops,  where  they  were  poisoned  by  the  drugged  samshoo 
offered  them  for  drink.  In  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  treasurer  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  inquiring  how  Christian  knowledge  could  be 
diffused  through  the  Chinese  Archipelago,  he  details  his  scheme  for  the 
establishment  of  central  and  local  mission  stations,  schools,  and  presses, 
with  vessels,  crews,  and  itinerating  preachers  to  carry  out  the  design. 
It  was  an  impracticable  and  costly  plan,  and  shows  an  earnest  desire  for 
the  extension  of  the  truth  rather  than  much  sagacity  as  to  the  practical 
details.  A  more  encouraging  pape'r  was  drawn  up  by  him  and  Mr. 
Bridgman  on  the  4th  of  September,  1832,  which  day  completed  twenty- 
five  years  since  he  landed,  stating  the  direct  and  indirect  results  of  mis- 
sionary labors  during  that  period,  and  looking  hopefully  to  a  vast  expan- 
sion of  the  work.  The  eleven  foreign  and  native  preachers,  the  ten 
converts  and  score  of  pupils,  the  Scriptures  and  tracts  issued  as  mentioned 
in  it,  have,  under  God's  blessing,  since  multiplied  to  hundreds,  thousands, 
and  millions. 

One  last  exhibition  of  the  petty  spite  of  the  company's  committee  in 
China  against  his  missionary  efforts  appeared  in  June,  1833,  when  he 
was  peremptorily  ordered  to  "  suspend  the  issue  of  any  further  publica- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         ROBERT  MORRISON.  835 

tions  from  the  printiug-press  in  his  house  at  Macao."  This  press  had 
issued  four  numbers  of  a  religious  newspaper  and  a  sermon  preached  at 
Whampoa,  all  in  the  English  language,  which  the  vicar-general  thei'e 
complained  of  to  the  governor  as  contrary  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church ;  and  he,  in  his  turn,  to  the  president  of  the  committee, 
who  willingly  became  their  tool  to  suppress  this  publication.  Dr.  Mor- 
rison stopped  it,  therefore,  protesting  "  against  the  whole  proceeding  as 
an  act  of  usurped  authority,  tyranny,  and  oppression  on  the  part  of  both 
Portuguese  and  English  at  the  bidding  of  a  popish  priest." 

In  July,  1834,  the  arrival  of  Lord  Napier  as  British  superintendent 
of  trade  confirmed  Dr.  Morrison's  appointment  as  Chinese  iuterjireter 
to  the  crown,  on  the  dissolution  of  the  company,  at  a  salary  of  one  thou- 
sand three  hundred  pounds.  He  entered  on  his  duties  immediately,  and 
prepared  to  accompany  the  commission  to  Canton.  On  the  passage  from 
Macao  he  was  exposed  to  heat  and  rain  during  one  night,  and  reached 
Canton  completely  exhausted.  Sharp  discussions  arose  between  the  Chi- 
nese and  British  authorities,  as  soon  as  the  latter  refused  to  call  their 
dis23atches  pin,  or  petitions,  and  employ  the  Hong-merchants  as  their 
official  medium  of  communication.  Thus  began  a  quarrel  which  has 
not  yet  altogether  ceased.  The  controversy  gave  Dr.  Morrison  much 
anxious  concern,  and  prevented  his  taking  needed  rest.  On  the  Sab- 
bath evening  after  his  arrival  he  gathered  his  domestics  and  others  for 
worship,  and  strained  himself  to  conduct  it.  His  son  says,  "  A  greater 
than  usual  degree  of  solemnity  appeared  to  pervade  the  little  congrega- 
tion, ^s  we  received  from  those  lips  the  words  of  everlasting  life." 

During  the  week,  his  feebleness  increased  so  that  he  decided  to  return 
to  Macao,  where  the  heat  was  less  oppressive.  One  who  was  with  him 
the  afternoon  before  his  death  says,  "  After  his  arrival,  about  a  week 
before  his  decease,  he  left  his  house  but  two  or  three  times,  though  he 
continued  to  attend  to  his  official  duties  almost  to  the  last  hour.  Though 
weak,  he  could  walk  into  another  room,  talk  feebly,  and  unite  in  sup- 
plicating the  divine  mercy.  He  said  that  he  thought  his  life  was  in 
danger,  but  I  did  not,  and  I  think  he  did  not  anticipate  so  speedy  a 
change.  I  sat  by  him,  and  he  repeated  many  passages  of  Scripture  :  '  I 
will  never  leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee,'  '  We  have  a  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,'  and  such  like.  He  then  prayed 
aloud  for  all  of  us,  if  he  should  be  taken  away  ;  that  God  would  be  mer- 
ciful to  Eliza  and  the  dear  children,  and  bless  them  with  his  protection 
and  guardian  care ;  that  the  Lord  would  sustain  him,  and  forsake  him  not 
now  in  his  feebleness ;  and  for  the  Chinese  mission,  that  grace  and  jieace 
might  rest  on  all  the  laborers.  And  having  said  these  things,  he  lay 
down  to  rest." 

That  night,  August  1,  1834,  he  was  released  from  sickness  and  suffer- 
ing, almost  before  his  son  and  those  standing  around  were  aware  of  his 


836  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

departure,  aod  while  they  were  devising  restoratives  preparatory  to  his 
sailing  in  the  morning  for  Macao.  He  was  fifty-two  years  six  months 
old,  and  almost  twenty-seven  years  had  passed  since  he  landed  in  Canton. 
His  remains  were  buried  beside  those  of  his  first  wife,  in  Macao.  Nine 
years  afterwards  those  of  his  gifted  son,  John  Robert,  were  laid  near  by. 
Whoever  writes  the  history  of  Christianity  in  China  must  turn  to  the  Prot- 
estant cemetery  in  Macao  with  reverence,  for  there  are  the  graves  of  the 
Morrisons,  of  Samuel  Dyer,  Dr.  Morrison's  colleague  and  pupil,  who  came 
to  China  only  to  die,  and  of  two  or  three  American  female  laborers. 

On  my  arrival  in  Canton,  in  October,  1833,  I  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Dr.  Morrison  and  his  son,  and  saw  him  many  times  during  the  winter, 
where  he  mostly  remained  till  February.  He  appeared  prematurely  old, 
and  his  person  had  become  so  corpulent  that  moving  about  was  a  great 
exertion  to  him.  He  was  able,  however,  to  keep  at  his  desk,  and  was 
devising  plans  for  work  to  the  last.  On  his  return  from  Macao,  in  Au- 
gust, he  expressed  more  solicitude  about  the  result  of  the  negotiations 
then  beginning  with  the  Chinese  than  fears  as  to  the  condition  of  his 
health.  It  was  a  gratifying  sight  to  me,  who  had  so  recently  reached  the 
field,  to  see  this  pioneer  in  mission  work,  after  a  lonely  service  com- 
menced amid  obscurity  and  doubt,  cheerful  in  his  daily  duties,  and  ready 
for  whatever  the  Master  willed,  whether  life  or  death.  As  he  had  ex- 
pressed himself  when  leaving  New  York,  twenty-seven  years  before,  sure 
that  God  would  make  an  impression  on  the  idolatry  of  the  Chinese  em- 
pire, he  now  saw  that  his  hope  had  not  been  in  vain ;  his  work  had  in- 
deed been  far  different  in  its  details  from  what  he  had  planned  in  his 
mind,  but  the  aim  had  been  unwavering  and  the  results  jjromising. 

Dr.  Morrison's  writings  attest  his  industry,  care,  and  erudition.  The 
list  of  his  published  works  in  Chinese  amounts  to  twelve  books,  of  which 
the  translation  of  the  Bible,  the  "  Family  Instructor,"  and  a  few  geo- 
graphical and  religious  tractates  are  the  chief.  In  English  there  were 
nineteen  separate  works,  including  his  dictionary,  grammar.  Canton 
vocabulary,  and  "  View  of  China  for  Philological  Purposes,  for  the  Use 
of  Chinese  Students,"  a  Life  of  W.  Milne,  four  volumes  of  sermons, 
miscellaneous  translations  from  the  Chinese,  and  minor  pamphlets  called 
forth  by  passing  events  or  discussions.  All  of  them  are  now  difficult  to 
procure. 

The  dawn  of  China's  regeneration  was  breaking  as  his  eyes  closed  on 
the  scene  of  his  labors,  and  these  labors  contributed  to  advance  the  new 
era,  and  his  example  to  inspirit  his  successors  to  more  and  greater  tri- 
umphs. His  name,  like  those  of  Carey,  Marshman,  Judson,  and  Martyn, 
belongs  to  the  heroic  age  of  missions.  Each  of  them  was  fitted  for  a 
peculiar  field.  Morrison  was  able  to  work  alone,  uncheered  by  congenial 
companions,  and  sustained  by  his  energy  and  sense  of  duty,  presenting 
to  foreigners  and  natives  alike  an  instance  of  a  man  diligent  in  business, 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]         ADONIRAM  JUDSON.  837 

fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord.  His  life  was  mostly  passed  in  the 
midst  of  those  who  had  no  sympathy  with  his  pursuits,  but  his  zeal  never 
abated,  nor  did  he  compromise  his  principles  to  advance  his  cause.  His 
translations  and  his  dictionary  have  been  indeed  superseded  by  better 
ones,  built  up  on  his  foundations,  and  guided  by  his  experience;  but  his 
was  the  work  of  a  wise  master-builder,  and  future  generations  in  the 
Church  of  God  in  China  will  ever  find  reason  to  bless  Him  for  the 
labors  and  example  of  Robert  Morrison.  —  S.  W.  W. 


LIFE   XXXVII.     ADONIRAM   JUDSON. 

A.  D.  1788-A.  D,  1849.       BAPTIST, BURMAH. 

Adoniram  Judson,  the  first  American  Baptist  missionary  to  Burmah, 
was  born  in  Maiden,  Massachusetts,  August  9, 1788.  As  a  child  he  gave 
promise  of  unusual  ability,  reading  in  the  Bible  at  three  years ;  at  four, 
preaching  to  his  little  sister ;  at  seven,  found  lying  on  the  ground,  with 
a  hole  in  the  hat  which  covered  his  eyes,  proving  by  a  method  of  his 
own  the  self-originated  problem,  "  Does  the  earth  or  the  sun  move  ? " 
in  his  fourteenth  year,  prepared  for  college ;  in  his  sixteenth,  entering 
Brown  University  a  year  in  advance ;  in  his  nineteenth,  graduating  with 
the  highest  honors.  Acute  in  intellect,  with  great  powers  of  acquisition, 
and  unfaltering  perseverance  and  persistence,  the  boy  gave  indications 
of  the  future  man.  Recognizing  his  own  abilities,  and  assured  by  the 
confidence  of  his  father  in  the  future  which  was  before  him,  his  ambition 
was  stimulated  by  the  expectations  of  a  brilliant  career ;  but  his  attain- 
ments, thus  early,  as  through  life,  were  the  result  of  unflagging  dili- 
gence. 

At  the  time  of  his  leaving  college,  infidelity,  like  a  black  wave,  was 
sweeping  over  the  land.  Free  inquiry  in  matters  of  religion  was  re- 
garded by  the  young  man  of  independent  thought  as  a  part  of  education. 
Young  Judson,  like  many  another,  cutting  loose  from  the  moorings  of 
traditional  faith,  drifted,  he  knew  not  whither.  But  the  Spirit  of  God, 
whose  instrument  he  was  to  become,  watched  over  him  on  the  illusive 
waters,  and  saved  him  from  the  shipwreck  which  he  courted. 

The  death,  under  peculiar  circumstances,  of  a  brilliant  and  talented 
young  man,  his  companion  in  intellectual  pursuits  and  relig-  -^  spiritual 
ious  doubts,  forced  back  upon  him  the  truths  he  had  tried  to  conaicts. 
abandon.  Having  no  fixed  faith,  he  was  well-nigh  in  despair.  Still 
clinging  at  heart  to  his  deistical  sentiments,  and  doubting  the  authen- 
ticity of  revealed  religion,  he  yet  recognized  his  personal  sinfulness  and 
the  need  of  some  great  moral  renovation.  His  moral  nature  became 
thoroughly  aroused,  and  he  was  deeply  in  earnest. 


838  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

With  this  conflict  going  on  in  his  heart  and  mind,  he  turned,  with 
the  candor  which  during  his  whole  life  marked  his  pursuit  of  truth,  to 
a  calm  and  careful  examination  of  the  grounds  of  Christian  faith.  To 
aid  him  in  his  investigations,  he  entered  the  theological  seminary  at 
Andover,  then  under  the  care  of  men  eminent  for  learning  and  piety, 
and  in  its  seclusion  he  gave  himself  up  to  undistracted  attention  to  his 
spiritual  interests.  He  opened  all  the  doors-  of  his  soul  to  the  light  of 
truth,  and  it  gradually  came  in.  With  his  whole  nature  he  surrendered 
himself  to  the  will  of  God,  recognizing  Christ  in  his  atoning  character, 
and  accepting  Him  as  his  Saviour.  The  change  was  so  deep  and  radical 
that  no  shadow  of  misgiving  or  doubt  ever  clouded  his  future.  From 
this  time  forth  the  trusting  and  appropriating  "  My  Lord,  and  my  God," 
was  the  expression  of  his  unquestioning  faith.  His  dreams  of  ambition 
vanished  ;  his  plans  of  life  were  changed ;  he  simply  asked,  "  How  shall 
I  so  order  my  life  as  best  to  please  God  ?  "  With  earnest  striving  after 
personal  holiness,  he  joyfully  consecrated  himself,  all  that  he  was  and 
all  that  he  was  to  be,  to  the  service  of  Christ. 

In  December,  1808,  a  few  weeks  after  going  to  Andover,  he  made  a 
solemn  dedication  of  himself  to  God.  In  May,  1809,  he  united  with  the 
Congregational  church  in  Plymouth,  of  which  his  father  was  pastor,  and 
decided  to  continue  his  studies  at  Andover.  Almost  without  a  question 
he  had  decided  upon  the  ministry.  When  he  saw  Christ  as  the  only  way 
of  salvation  for  his  own  soul,  he  accepted  it  as  his  obligation  and  choice 
to  devote  his  life  to  the  salvation  of  lost  men. 

In  September  of  this  year  he  read  Buchanan's  "  Star  in  the  East," 
which  made  so  powerful  an  impression  on  his  mind  that  after  several 
months  of  serious  consideration  he  gave  himself,  in  enthusiastic  but 
thoughtful  consecration,  to  the  evangelization  of  the  heathen.  At  a  later 
period  the  reading  of  Symes's  "  Embassy  to  Ava  "  fixed  his  desires  on  a 
mission  to  Burmah,  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  was  to  be  his  future 
field. 

Almost  simultaneously,  the  minds  of  three  or  four  young  men  in  Will- 
iams College  and  in  Andover  became  similarly  impressed  with  regard 
to  their  duties  to  the  heathen  in  this  and  other  lands.  Their  sentiments 
became  known  to  each  other,  and  the  faith  and  purposes  of  each  were 
strengthened. 

This  point  in  the  history  of  American  missions  is  a  most  interesting 
one.  As  years  have  passed  since  the  beginning  of  the  American  foreign 
missionary  enterprise,  we  see  that  this  was  a  prepared  time  ;  we  see  the 
purposes  of  God  running  like  a  thread  of  light  through  the  thoughts  of 
men's  minds  and  the'  tendencies  of  the  times  ;  and  minds  and  times  were 
shaped  for  the  events  which  were  to  follow.  God  builded  better  than 
these  young  men  knew. 

Already  the  English  missionary  societies  had  made  successful  begin- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ADONIRAM  JUDSON.  839 

nings  in  India,  but  the  spots  of  light  were  few  and  small.  Drs.  Ryland, 
Fuller,  and  Sutcliffe  had  kindled  the  flame  of  missionary  zeal  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  in  this  country,  Drs.  Worcester,  Stoughton,  and  others,  men 
of  enlarged  views  and  deep  and  earnest  piety,  were  praying  and  elo- 
quently preaching  our  duties  to  the  heathen  world.  As  has  been  said, 
"it  was  the  sun  on  the  mountain  tops,  which  showed  that  the  sun  bad 
risen,"  but  the  light  was  mostly  on  ihe  mountain  tops.  Missionary  soci- 
eties of  a  limited  character  had  been  formed,  but  there  was  as  yet  no 
general  organization  uniting  the  churches  of  the  country  for  supporting 
missions  to  the  heathen.  The  churches  were  widely  separated,  commu- 
nication was  difficult,  and  they  were  ignorant  of  their  strength.  It  wanted 
the  occasion  to  call  out,  and  call  together,  the  scattered  ele-   „ 

.  .  .  *5  '  One  of  four  to 

ments.     This  occasion  was  given  when  four  young  men  of    occasion  the 

41  1.  •  ^      /~^^     •     •  i  ti  n  i        founding  of  the 

Andover,  glowing  with  Christian  ardor  and  love  tor  souls,    American 

offered  themselves,  upon  the  2Sth  day  of  June,  1810,  to  go 

to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth   to  tell  of  the  love  of   Jesus. 

In  this  new  emergency,  which  they  had  not  anticipated  and  for  which 
they  were  not  prepared,  the  American  churches  naturally  turned  for 
direction  and  aid  to  the  London  society,  with  its  larger  experience,  and 
would  gladly  have  united  with  it  in  the  support  and  conduct  of  the 
new  mission. 

Although  regarding  the  proposition  with  the  utmost  kindness,  the  Eng- 
lish society  did  not  deem  it  practicable.  Thus  thrown  back  upon  them- 
selves, to  meet  the  exigency  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missio.ns  was  formed,  which  timidly  but  determinedly  took  up 
the  support  of  its  own  missions. 

In  February,  1812,  Jndson  married  Miss  Ann  Hasseltine,  the  noble 
and  heroic  woman  who  shared  with  him,  with  a  devotion  and  a  faith 
equal  to  his  own,  the  vicissitudes,  the  trials,  and  the  self-denials  of  those 
early  years  of  suffering  and  solitude  in  which  the  mission  to  Burmah  was 
planted.  They  sailed  soon  after,  with  Rice,  Nott,  Newell,  and  others, 
—  whose  names  have  become  household  words,  —  the  first  American 
missionaries  to  India. 

The  hand  of  God  led  Judson  on  the  water  as  on  the  land,  preparing 
him  in  a  peculiar  manner  for  the  execution  of  his  purposes.  On  ship- 
board, the  minds  of  himself  and  his  wife  were  led  to  a  reexamination  of 
the  subject  of  baptism,  as  also  of  the  Scriptural  proofs.  An  earnest  ex- 
amination of  these  points  led  them  to  a  change  of  views,  and,  on  arriv- 
ing at  Calcutta,  they  requested  immersion  at  the  hands  of  the  English 
Baptist  missionaries.  Their  changed  views  necessitated  a  change  in  their 
future  plans,  and  the  separation  in  labor  from  their  associates  was  painful 
in  the  extreme. 

Alone  in  a  heathen  land,  cut  off  from  support  by  the  board  which  sent 
them  out,  they  turned  to  the  Baptists  in  the  United  States,  then  a  com- 


840  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

paratively  feeble  body,  with  no  adequate  missionary  organization,  but  with 
a  deep  interest  in  missions  existing  throughout  the  denomination.  The 
appeal  met  with  an  enthusiastic  response,  and  resulted  in  forming  the 
American  Baptist  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  an  organization  which 
in  1845  assumed  the  present  name  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Union. 
Thus  were  formed  two  noble  institutions  which  have  dotted  with  their 
missions  almost  the  whole  extent  of  heathendom,  which  have  witnessed 
results  the  most  sanguine  could  hardly  have  anticipated,  and  whose  be- 
neficent influences  eternity  alone  can  unfold. 

The  little  company  of  the  Caravan,  which  embarked  at  Salem  for  Cal- 
cutta, amidst  the  doubts  of  their  friends  and  the  sneers  of  those  who 
were  not,  had  hardly  set  foot  on  Indian  shores  when  a  barrier  stronger 
than  that  of  paganism  opposed  them.  The  East  India  Company,  then 
in  the  flush  of  its  power  and  intolerance,  either  from  avarice  or  from 
antagonism  to  their  object,  peremptorily  forbade  their  settling  in  any  of 
the  company's  territory,  and  resisted,  by  every  means  in  their  power, 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  among  the  millions  of  its  subjects  in 
Bengal. 

After  many  delays  and  dangers,  while  attempting  to  find  a  home  in 
judson  in  Bur-  ^^^®  ^^^^  ^^  France,  they  were  driven  by  fresh  persecutions 
^^^-  and  adverse  seas  to  Rangoon,  where,  out  of  the  reach  of 

Christian  power,  they  were  permitted,  but  not  by  man,  to  teach  the  gos- 
pel of  love  and  grace.  From  the  intolerance  of  a  nominally  Christian, 
they  had  escaped  to  the  intolerance  of  a  truly  heathen  government. 

The  government  of  Burmah  was  an  unmitigated  despotism,  and  en- 
mity to  the  spread  of  the  new  religion  was  bitter  in  the  extreme.  Forced 
to  pursue  their  work  secretly,  Mr.  Judson  gave  the  first  years  to  the 
acquisition  of  the  language,  a  language  rich  in  its  sacred  literature,  but 
having  no  known  affinities  to  any  other  Indian  tongue,  and,  to  the  first 
foreigner  attempting  to  acquire  it,  one  of  unusual  difficulty. 

His  purpose  was  so  to  master  its  construction  and  peculiarities  that 
he  might  think  in  it  as  in  his  vernacular  ;  that  he  might  thus  be  able  to 
render  with  exactness,  into  the  language  of  a  people  who  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  it,  the  word  of  the  living  God.  So  persistent  was  his  assiduity, 
that  he  acquired  in  a  few  years  such  a  knowledge  of  it  that  he  was  said 
to  write  and  speak  it  with  the  familiarity  of  a  native  and  the  elegance 
of  a  cultivated  scliolai-.  Nothing  but  absolute  mastery  limited  his  de- 
sire for  command  over  a  language  which  was  to  be  the  vehicle  of  the 
lively  oracles,  and  with  which  he  was  to  assail  an  idolatry  grown  vener- 
able by  antiquity.  Buddhism,  the  religion  of  Burmah,  possessed  a  moral 
code  remarkable  for  the  purity  of  its  precepts,  and  recognized  the  strict- 
est system  of  future  rewards  and  punishments.  Reeking  with  law  and 
penalty,  it  contained  no  allusion  to  repentance,  no  hint  of  forgiveness. 
How  was  he  straitened  within  himself,  till  he  could  proclaim  the  holy 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]        ADONIRAM  JUDSON.  841 

doctrines  of  forgiveness  and  peace,  through  an  atoning  Saviour,  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  only  God  ! 

During  these  years  of  silent  labor,  the  churches  at  home  became  im- 
patient of  results.  Doubtless  the  echoes  of  this  impatience  reached  him 
when  he  penned  those  words  of  faith  and  trust,  words  as  sublime  in  their 
trust  and  faith  as  were  ever  penned  by  the  hand  of  man  :  "  If  they  ask 
again,  '  What  prospect  of  ultimate  success  is  there  ? '  tell  them,  As 
much  as  that  there  is  an  almighty  and  faithful  God,  who  will  perform 
his  promises,  and  no  more.  If  this  does  not  satisfy  them,  beg  them  to 
let  me  stay  and  try  it,  and  to  let  you  come,  and  to  give  us  our  bread  ;  or 
if  they  are  unwilling  to  risk  their  bread  on  such  a  forlorn  hope  as  has 
nothing  but  the  Word  of  God  to  sustain  it,  beg  of  them  at  least  not  to 
prevent  others  from  giving  us  bread,  and  if  we  live  some  twenty  or  thirty 
years,  they  may  hear  from  us  again."  He  adds,  further,  after  speaking 
of  the  degradation  of  the  people,  and  the  comfortless  life  of  missionaries, 
—  except  what  was  found  in  each  other  and  in  their  work,  —  "  How- 
ever, if  a  ship  was  lying  in  the  river  ready  to  convey  me  to  any  part  of 
the  world  I  should  choose,  and  that  too  with  the  approbation  of  all  my 
Christian  friends,  I  should  prefer  dying  to  embarking."  Such  faith,  such 
fidelity,  such  zeal,  such  holy  devotion !  Do  we  wonder  that  the  windows 
of  heaven  were  opened,  and  the  blessing  came  down  like  a  gracious  rain 
on  the  seed-sowing  ? 

Having  acquired  facility  in  the  use  of  the  language,  he  began  what  he 
would  gladly  have  taken  as  the  labor  of  his  life,  —  the  oral  preaching  of 
the  gospel  to  the  few  inquirers  he  could  gather  round  him.  A  zayat 
was  opened  by  the  road-side,  and  a  few  timid  inquirers  came  stealthily 
to  hear  the  strange  new  story.  The  thoughtful,  cautious,  philosophical 
Burmese  heard  such  words  as  no  Buddhist  books  contained.  They  heard 
of  a  God,  eternal,  unchangeable.  They  came  again;  they  inquired;  they 
pondered  ;  they  believed  ;  they  received  the  instantaneous  pardon  of  re- 
pented sin.  How  beautiful  the  simple  story  of  the  cross  became  to  those 
ears  which  had  heard  only  of  ajons  of  hopeless  suffering  for  unatonable 
sin  !  How  satisfying  the  confidence  in  a  God  who  could  not  change,  in 
place  of  Guadama,  the  synonym  of  change !  Such  was  his  hope  for  the 
whole  Burman  people. 

Few  instances  of  clearer  faith  can  be  found  than  in  those  early  con- 
verts in  Burmah.  Of  Moung  Shuay-Pau  he  says,  "  He  is  a  ^^^^  gj.,^  g^.. 
fair  specimen  of  a  cautious  Burman,  who  turns  a  thing  over  '^^^^^  converts. 
ten  thousand  times  before  he  takes  it,  but  when  he  once  takes  it,  he  holds 
it  forever."  Of  Moving  Bo,  "  He  has  relinquished  Buddhism,  and  got 
through  with  Deism  and  Unitarianism,  and  now  appears  to  be  near  the 
truth."  Of  Myat-Kyan,  "  He  has  been  an  inquirer  after  truth  many  years, 
and  has  diligently  investigated  the  systems  of  Buddh,  of  Brahma,  of 
Mohammed.     At  length  he  has  embraced  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 


842  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

with  all  his  mind  and  soul."  A  little  church  was  gathered  around  them 
in  Rangoon.  The  Burmese  government  had  made  one  long  step  in 
progress.  Foreigners  were  allowed  to  worship  according  to  the  dictates 
of  their  own  conscience,  undisturhed,  hut  it  sacredly  guarded  its  own 
people  from  the  proselytism  of  religious  teachers,  and  the  native  Chris- 
tians embraced  the  new  faith  in  the  face  of  persecution  and  death. 

In  the  hope  of  obtaining  tolerance  and  protection  for  them,  Mr.  Jud- 
son  resolved  upon  a  visit  to  Ava,  the  capital  of  the  empire.  He  pro- 
cured an  interview  with  the  king,  but  in  his  effort  he  was  unsuccessful. 
Of  this  failure  he  says  characteristically,  "  The  result  of  our  toils  and 
travels  has  been  the  very  best  possible  ;  a  result  which,  if  we  could  see 
the  end  from  the  beginning,  would  call  forth  our  highest  praise.  O 
slow  of  heart  to  believe  and  trust  in  the  constant  presence  and  overruling 
care  of  our  almighty  Saviour ! " 

Still  the  work  continued  to  spread,  and  prospects  were  brightening, 
when  the  alarming  illness  of  his  wife  made  it  necessary  for  her  to  return 
to  America.  Left  entirely  alone  Judson  devoted  himself  with  redoubled 
energy  to  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  labors  of  the 
zayat.  When  persecution  relaxed  he  employed  most  of  his  time  in  re- 
ligious instruction  ;  when  the  sky  darkened,  he  turned  with  earnestness 
to  the  work  of  translation.  The  mission  had  been  reinforced  by  Mr. 
Hough,  a  printer,  and  the  press  was  beginning  to  do  its  work. 

Two  years  later,  1832,  his  new  associate,  Dr.  Price,  was  summoned  by 
an  imperial  order  to  Ava,  on  account  of  his  medical  skill.  Mr.  Judson, 
regretfully  leaving  the  few  faithful  disciples  in  Rangoon,  accompanied 
him  as  interpreter  at  court,  hoping,  with  better  facilities,  to  continue  his 
labors  on  the  Testament.  Both  were  favorably  received  by  the  king ; 
they  were  recognized  in  their  character  as  religious  teachers,  and  a  grant 
of  land  was  given  on  which  to  build  a  "  kynuug."  Mrs.  Judson  returned 
after  a  two  years'  absence,  in  improved  health  ;  the  translation  was  near 
completion,  and  the  long-indulged  hope  of  a  successful  establishment  in 
the  capital  of  the  empire  seemed  about  to  be  realized. 

There  had  been  faint  rumors  of  war,  and  while  there  was  but  a  speck 
in  the  sky,  the  war-cloud  burst  upon  them.  The  Burmese  emperor  had 
cherished  the  ambitious  design  of  invading  Bengal,  and  while  Bandoola 
was  on  his  march  of  conquest  into  Cambodia,  Rangoon  was  unexpectedly 
taken  possession  of  by  the  English.  Amazement  and  dismay  spread 
through  the  capital.  All  foreigners  were  under  suspicion.  Judson  and 
Price  were  thrown  into  prison  as  spies. 

We  will  not  relate  the  heart-sickening  sufferings  of  those  twenty-one 
In  prison  in  months  of  captivity,  or  the  almost  superhuman  devotion  and 
•^''*-  fortitude  of  that  heroic  woman  who  walked  sublime  amid 

the  terrible  scenes  of  Ava  and  Oung-pen-la;  whose  character  rose  to  the 
height  of  the  morally  grand ;  whose  heroism  and  heroic  endurance  drew 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ADONIRAM  JUDSON.  843 

tears  from  the  eyes  of  Christian  soldiers  and  barbaric  men  ;  whose  elo- 
quence softened  hard  hearts  ;  who,  begirt  with  the  power  of  her  own 
moral  atmosphere,  beautiful  in  person  and  superior  in  intellect,  walked 
unscathed  amid  the  pollutions  of  barbarism,  and  became  the  "  author  of 
those  eloquent  and  powerful  appeals  to  the  Burman  government  which 
prepared  them  by  degrees  for  submission  to  terms  of  a  sincere  peace." 

Success  crowned  the  English  arms,  and  those  dark  prisons  were  opened. 
After  the  order  of  release  came,  Judson  was  forcibly  retained  as  inter- 
preter in  the  Burman  camp.  Exposures  threw  him  into  a  violent  fever. 
Six  weeks  more  of  suffering  and  cruelty,  and  he  was  permitted  to  return 
to  Ava  and  his  home.  What  was  his  anguish,  on  entering  that  home, 
to  find  his  little  emaciated  baby,  born  amid  the  horrors  of  those  prison 
days,  in  the  arms  of  a  squalid  Burmese  nurse,  and  the  wife  who  had 
followed  him  from  prison  to  prison  in  noonday  heat  and  midnight  dews, 
lying  as  one  dead,  where  she  had  fallen,  the  Burman  neighbors  saying, 
"  She  is  dead,  and  if  the  king  of  angels  should  come  in,  he  could  not  re- 
store her."  But  the  touch  of  lips  and  the  sound  of  a  voice  dearer  to  her 
than  any  other  on  earth  brought  her  back  again,  and  they  were  permit- 
ted another  brief  j^eriod  of  suttering  and  service  together. 

The  government  had  learned  Judson's  value,  and  it  was  with  great  dif- 
ficulty that  he  was  released  from  its  service.  The  time  came  at  length. 
Sir  Archibald  Campbell  demanded  it,  and  sent  him  and  his  family  down 
the  river  surrounded  by  eight  gilded  boats.  It  was  with  reference  to  this 
that  in  later  years  he  said  to  friends  comparing  the  most  exquisite  joys 
they  had  experienced,  "But  what  do  you  think  of  sailing  down  the  Ir- 
rawaddy  on  a  cool  moonlight  evening,  with  your  wife  by  your  side  and 
your  baby  in  your  arms,  free  —  all  free  ?  I  can  never  regret  my  twenty- 
one  months  of  misery  when  I  recall  that  one  ever  delicious  thrill," 

On  reaching  Rangoon  they  found  the  little  church  scattered,  the  mis- 
sion-house destroyed,  and  it  was  thought  better  to  find  another  place  of 
missionary  labor.  Amherst,  in  tlie  Tenasserim  district,  under  British 
protection,  was  selected,  and  thither  tliey  went  to  rebuild  their  hearth- 
stones and  their  altars.  They  gathered  some  of  the  disciples  and  began 
teaching.  An  important  treaty  was  to  be  concluded  at  Yendabo.  At 
the  earnest  desii-e  of  the  commissioner,  and  with  the  assurance  that,  if 
possible,  the  treaty  should  contain  articles  of  toleration  toward  the  native 
Christians,  and  with  Mrs.  Judson's  added  persuasions,  he  made  it  his 
duty,  and  went.  Toleration  was  not  secured,  and  what  was  the  bitterness 
of  his  grief  to  find  on  his  return  that  death  had  removed  his  wife,  for- 
ever. A  grave  by  the  hopia  tree,  the  precious  memory  of  what  she  was, 
and  the  little  emaciated  Maria,  were  all  that  was  left  him  of  her  love  and 
loveliness. 

Smitten  to  the  earth,  the  bereaved  husband  turned  to  the  source  of 
strength  that  had  never  failed  him,  and  labored  on.     The  manuscript  of 


844  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

the  New  Testament,  which  Mrs.  Judson  had  kept  secreted  in  the  prison 
at  Ava,  was  saved  to  him.  Dr.  Bennet  had  arrived  to  take  charge  of  the 
mission  press  at  Maulmain,  whither  the  mission  had  been  removed  soon 
after  the  death  of  Mrs.  Judson  in  1826.  Still  directing  inquirers  to  the 
truth,  and  superintending  the  piinting  of  the  New  Testament,  he  gave 
himself  especially  to  the  completion  of  the  Old.  Seven  years  more  of 
labor,  and  on  the  3 1st  of  January,  1834,  h^  wrote  that  memorable 
"  Thanks  be  to  God,  I  can  now  say  I  have  attained.  I  have  knelt  down 
Completes  the  with  the  last  leaf  in  my  hand,  and  imploring  his  forgiveness 
Burman  Bible.  fQj.  ^H  the  sins  wbich  have  polluted  my  labors  in  this  depart- 
ment, and  his  aid  in  future  efforts  to  remove  errors  and  imperfections 
which  may  necessarily  cleave  to  the  work,  I  have  commended  it  to  his 
mercy  and  grace,  I  have  dedicated  it  to  his  glory. 

"May  He  make  his  own  inspired  Word,  now  complete  in  the  Burman 
tongue,  the  grand  instrument  of  filling  all  Burmah  with  songs  of  jiraise 
to  our  great  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 

Touching  as  were  the  records  of  his  heart  during  these  lonely  years, 
we  must  pass  them  by. 

The  visit  of  Mrs.  Judson  to  America,  the  sufferings  through  which  they 
had  passed,  and  their  own  faith  had  quickened  the  flame  of  missionary 
zeal  throughout  the  American  churches ;  money  poured  into  the  treasury ; 
new  missionaries  were  sent  out ;  new  fields  were  opening,  near  and  dis- 
tant ;  the  Karens,  a  new  {people,  were  being  gathered  in ;  the  East  India 
Company,  which  at  first  drove  them  from  its  borders,  covered  them  with 
its  protecting  wing ;  native  converts  were  increasing ;  a  native  ministry 
was  being  raised  up,  of  men  strong  in  character  and  strong  in  faith ;  the 
Bible  and  other  religious  writings  had  been  scattered  broadcast,  and  car- 
ried or  blown  leaves  of  the  tree  of  life,  God  knew  whither ;  and  these 
years  had  been  to  Dr.  Judson  years  of  unusual  growth  and  rii^ening  of 
Christian  character. 

Again,  after  years  of  loneliness,  the  fires  were  rekindled  on  his  deso- 
lated hearthstone.  Little  Maria  had  long  slept  under  the  hopia  tree. 
George  Dana  Boardman  had  entered  upon  and  closed  his  brief  but  fruit- 
ful missionary  labors.  His  widow  had  for  years  carried  on  his  unfin- 
ished work  in  the  Karen  jungles,  until  a  church  of  two  hundred  members 
crowned  their  seed-sowing.  It  was  fitting  that  two  such  lives  should 
be  united,  and  in  1834,  at  Yarry,  God  gave  his  benediction  on  their  mar- 
riage vows.  In  her  new  home  Mrs.  Judson  aided,  cheered,  and  strength- 
ened her  husband,  the  worthy  successor,  intellectually  and  morally,  of 
Ann  Judson. 

In  1834  the  churches  in  Burmah  numbered  six  hundred  and  sixty-six 
members.  The  following  year  seven  hundred  and  eighty-six  were  added; 
the  next  year  eleven  hundred  and  forty-four.  The  wilderness  was  blos- 
Boming. 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ADONIRAM  JUDSON.  845 

It  had  been  Dr.  Judsou's  most  intense  desire  during  all  the  years  of 
his  missionary  life  to  give  himself  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  but 
the  preparation  of  a  Burman  dictionary  was  urged  upon  him,  and  in 
1843  he  writes :  "  Several  years  were  spent  in  translating  the  Bible,  and 
several  more  in  revising  it  and  carrying  the  last  edition  through  the 
press.  After  which,  in  May  last,  I  commenced  a  dictionary  of  the  lan- 
guage, a  work  which  I  had  resolved  and  re-resolved  I  would  never  touch, 
but  as  the  Board  and  my  brethren  urged  it,  and  as  Burmah  continued 
shut  against  our  labors,  and  there  were  several  missionaries  in  this  place, 
I  concluded  I  could  not  do  better  than  to  comply. 

"  We  are  apt  to  magnify  the  importance  of  any  undertaking  in  which  we 
are  warmly  engaged.  Perhaps  it  is  from  the  influence  of  that  principle 
that,  notwithstanding  my  long-cherished  aversion  to  the  work,  I  have 
begun  to  think  it  very  important ;  and  that  having  seen  the  accomplish- 
ment of  two  objects  on  which  I  had  set  my  heart  when  I  first  came  out 
to  the  East,  —  the  establishment  of  a  church  of  converted  natives,  and  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  their  language,  —  I  now  beguile  my  daily  toil 
with  the  prospect  of  compassing  a  third,  which  may  be  compared  to  a 
causeway  designed  to  facilitate  the  transmission  of  all  knowledge,  relig- 
ious and  scientific,  from  one  people  to  the  other." 

Repeated  and  severe  attacks  of  sickness  had  come  to  Dr.  Judson,  and 
to  his  laborious  and  faithful  wife.  Mrs.  Judson's  health,  for  some  time 
declining,  had  been  so  thoroughly  prostrated  that  there  seemed  to  be  no 
hope  but  in  a  journey  beyond  the  tropics.  Strong  as  were  his  domestic 
affections,  tender  as  was  his  love  for  his  wife,  much  as  he  longed  to  see  his 
native  land,  nothing  but  an  imperative  duty  would  have  drawn  him  from 
his  post.  Medical  skill  had  been  exhausted,  and  he  embarked  with  his 
almost  dying  wife  in  July,  1845,  for  Boston.  A  temporary  improvement 
raised  the  hope  in  both  that  he  might  return  to  his  work,  while  she  should 
pursue  the  homeward  journey  alone.  But  the  disease  returned  with  new 
violence,  and  as  they  were  nearing  St.  Helena,  her  spirit  passed  away. 

Again  the  light  of  his  home  had  gone  out,  and  a  precious  form  was  laid 
to  sleep  in  a  lonely  grave  in  St.  Helena,  to  await,  with  that  other  at  Am- 
herst, the  resurrection  of  the  just. 

Mrs.  Judson  had  given  India  twenty  years  of  successful  service.  She 
had  blessed  the  home  and  carried  on  the  labors  of  the  sainted  Boardman  ; 
she  had  acquired  the  language  in  such  perfection  that  Dr.  Judson  said  of 
her,  "  There  is  scarcely  an  individual  foreigner  who  speaks  or  writes  the 
Burman  language  so  acceptably  as  she  does."  She  was  the  author  of 
valuable  books,  tracts,  and  hymns,  and  in  many  ways  had  been  a  most 
efficient  helper  to  her  husband  in  their  home,  in  their  missionary  labor, 
and  in  their  Christian  lives. 

Her  work  was  finished,  and  leaving  the  precious  dust,  he  reembarked 
with  his  motherless  children,  and  after  an  absence  of  thirty-three  years 


846  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

again  set  foot  on  his  native  shores.    Hardly  was  his  arrival  known,  when 
a  spontaneous  outburst  of  welcome  from  all  denominations 

In  America  after  '■ 

thirty-thiee  Surprised  and  almost  bewildered  him.  He  who  on  shipboard 
had  questioned  where  he  would  find  lodgings,  found  a  hun- 
dred homes  opened  to  him  as  an  honored  guest,  and  the  hearts  of  mill- 
ions of  American  Christians  did  him. reverence.  The  humble  missionary 
who  had  labored  on,  heedless  that  any  eye  saw  him  but  that  of  the  One 
he  served,  could  not  recognize  in  himself  the  object  of  these  demonstra- 
tions ;  he  was  surprised,  humbled,  almost  offended  at  what  was  really  the 
involuntary  tribute  of  Christian  hearts  to  Christian  heroism.  He  seemed 
to  himself  to  have  done  nothing,  and  he  shrunk  from  public  assemblies 
in  his  honor. 

Dr.  Wayland,  whose  guest  he  was  while  in  Providence,  thus  recalls 
his  spirit  at  family  worshiij,  which  he  conducted  after  a  meeting  of  wel- 
come in  that  city :  "  His  prayer  on  that  occasion  can  never  be  forgotten 
by  those  who  heard  it.  So  lowly  abasement  in  the  presence  of  unspot- 
ted holiness,  such  earnest  pleadings  for  pardon  for  the  imperfections  of 
those  services  for  which  men  praised  him,  so  utter  renunciation  of  all 
merit  for  anything  he  had  ever  done,  so  entire  reliance  for  acceptance 
with  God  only  on  the  merits  and  atonement  of  the  gospel  sacrifice  for 
sins,  I  think  it  was  never  my  happiness  to  hear.  Such,  I  believe,  was  the 
habitual  temper  of  his  mind  that  the  more  his  brethren  were  disposed  to 
exalt  him,  the  more  deeply  did  he  seem  to  feel  his  own  deficiencies,  and 
the  more  humble  was  his  prostration  at  the  foot  of  the  cross." 

The  thirty-three  years  of  absence  had  made  great  changes.  Well 
might  he  say,  "  Where  are  the  well-known  faces  of  Spring,  of  Worces- 
ter, and  Dwight?  Where  are  Lyman  and  Huntington  and  Griffin  ?  And 
where  are  those  leaders  of  the  baptized  ranks  who  stretched  out  their 
hands  to  me  across  the  waters  and  welcomed  me  to  their  communion  ? 
And  where  are  my  early  associates,  Newell  and  Hall  and  Rice  and 
Richards  and  Mills  ?  But  why  inquire  for  those  so  ancient  ?  Where 
are  the  succeeding  laborers,  and  those  who  succeeded  them  ?  And  where 
are  those  who  moved  amid  the  dark  scenes  of  Rangoon  and  Ava  and 
Tavoy  ?  Where  those  gentle  yet  firm  spirits  which  tenanted  forms  del- 
icate in  structure,  but  careless  of  the  storm,  now  broken  and  scattered  and 
strewn  ?" 

There  were  great  changes,  not  only  in  the  workers  but  in  the  work, 
which  was  making  its  beginnings  well-nigh  over  the  whole  earth  —  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa,  the  wilds  of  North  America,  and  the  islands  of  the  seas. 

Delightful  as  was  much  that  he  saw  and  felt  and  enjoyed  at  home, 
he  turned  to  his  little  orphaned  children  left  behind,  to  the  native  church 
in  Maulmain,  to  his  brethren  over  the  water,  and  to  his  heavy  work  on 
the  dictionary,  with  longing  lieart.     He  desired  to  be  gone. 

In  July,  1846,  he  married  Miss  Emily  Chubbuck,  —  Fanny  Forrester, 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]        ADONIRAM  JUDSON.  847 

of  literary  fame,  the  gifted  lady  who  cheered  his  last  years  with  the  gentle 
ministries  of  love  and  affection,  —  and  sailed  ae;ain  for  Burmah.  Findinsr 
the  work  advancing  in  all  departments  in  Maulmain,  he  determined  to  go 
to  Rangoon,  where  he  might  avail  himself  of  learned  men  and  books  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  dictionary,  and  might  be  in  the  way  of  new  openings 
into  the  heart  of  the  country.  A  new  king  was  on  the  throne,  more  in- 
tolerant than  his  predecessors,  and  he  was  forced  to  return  to  Maulmain. 
He  continued  his  labors  unremittingly  until  November,  1849,  when  he 
was  attacked  by  a  violent  fever.  He  partially  recovered,  but  it  was  the 
beginning  of  the  end.  Every  resource  was  exhausted,  the  disease  was 
reaching  the  springs  of  life.  The  only  hoj^e  lay  in  a  sea-voyage.  He 
was  carried  on  shipboard  on  the  3d  of  April,  and  in  a  little  more  than  a 
week  after  he  embarked,  on  the  12th  of  April,  1849,  he  closed  his  earthly 
labors,  and  entered  on  the  rewards  of  the  just  made  perfect. 

We  cannot  forbear  giving  some  extracts  from  Mrs.  Judson's  account  of 
his  last  days.  "As  his  health  declined  his  mental  exercises  mg closing 
at  first  seemed  deepened,  and  he  gave  still  larger  portions  '^^y^- 
of  his  time  to  prayer,  conversing  with  the  utmost  freedom  on  his  daily 
progress  and  the  extent  of  his  self-conquest.  One  day  he  said  earnestly, 
'  I  have  gained  the  victory  at  last.  I  love  every  one  of  Christ's  re- 
deemed, as  I  believe  He  would  have  me  love  them,  and  gladly  would  I 
prefer  the  meanest  of  his  creatures,  who  bears  the  name,  before  myself.' 
....  From  this  time  no  other  word  would  so  well  express  his  state  of 
feeling  as  that  one  of  his  own  choosing  —  peace.  He  remained  calm  and 
serene,  speaking  of  himself  daily  as  a  great  sinner  who  had  been  over- 
whelmed with  benefits,  and  declaring  that  he  had  never  in  all  his  life 
before  had  such  delightful  views  of  the  unfathomable  love  and  infinite 
condescension  of  the  Saviour  as  were  now  daily  opening  before  his  eyes ! 
'  Oh,  the  love  of  Christ !  the  love  of  Christ ! '  he  would  suddenly  exclaim, 
while  his  eye  kindled,  and  the  tears  chased  each  other  down  his  cheeks. 
We  cannot  understand  it  now,  but  what  a  beautiful  study  for  eternity  !  " 

At  another  time,  on  being  told  that  it  was  feared  by  most  of  the  mis- 
sion that  he  could  not  recover,  "  I  know  it,"  he  replied,  "  and  I  suppose 
they  think  me  an  old  man,  and  imagine  it  is  nothing  for  one  like  me  to 
resign  a  life  so  full  of  trials ;  but  I  am  not  old,  at  least  in  that  sense. 
Oh,  no  man  ever  left  this  world  with  more  inviting  prospects,  with 
brighter  hopes,  with  warmer  feeling."  His  face  was  perfectly  calm,  even 
while  the  tears  broke  away  from  the  closed  lids  and  rolled  one  after 
another  down  to  the  pillow.  To  some  suggestion  which  his  wife  vent- 
ured to  make,  he  replied,  "  It  is  not  that,  I  know  all  that,  and  feel  it  in 
my  inmost  heart.  Lying  here  on  my  bed  when  I  could  not  talk,  I  have 
had  such  views  of  the  loving  condescension  of  Christ,  and  the  glories  of 
heaven,  as  I  believe  are  seldom  granted  to  mortal  man.  It  is  not  that  I 
shrink  from  death  that  I  wish  to  live,  neither  is  it  that  the  ties  that  bind 


848  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

me  here,  though  some  of  them  are  very  sweet,  bear  any  comparisons 
with  the  drawings  I  at  times  feel  toward  heaven  ;  but  a  few  years  would 
not  be  missed  from  an  eternity  of  bliss,  and  I  can  well  afford  to  spare 
them,  both  for  your  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  the  poor  Burmans.  I  am 
not  tired  of  my  work,  neither  am  I  tired  of  the  world,  yet  when  Christ 
calls  me  home  I  shall  go  with  the  gladness  of  a  boy  bounding  away  from 
school.  Perhaps  I  feel  something  like  a  young  bride  resigning  the  as- 
sociations of  her  childhood  for  a  yet  dearer  home  ;  though  only  a  very 
little  like  her,  for  there  is  no  doubt  resting  on  my  future."  "  Then  death 
would  not  take  you  by  surprise  if  it  should  come  even  before  you  got 
on  shipboard  ?  "  "  Oh,  no,"  he  said,  "  death  will  never  take  me  by  sur- 
prise, do  not  be  afraid  of  that,  I  feel  so  strong  in  Christ.  He  has  not  led 
me  so  tenderly  thus  far  to  forsake  me  at  the  very  gate  of  heaven.  No, 
no,  I  am  willing  to  live  a  few  years  longer  if  it  should  be  so  ordered, 
and  if  otherwise,  I  am  willing  and  glad  to  die  now.  I  leave  myself  en- 
tirely in  the  hands  of  God,  to  be  disposed  of  according  to  his  holy  will." 
And  with  such  peace  he  passed  into  the  holy  presence. 

"  If,"  as  Kingsley  says,  "  in  the  shallowest  natures  there  are  unfath- 
omable depths,"  what  may  we  expect  from  natures  endowed  to  affluence, 
and  enriched  by  culture  and  Christianity  ?  Judson's  intellectual  endow- 
ments were  of  a  rarely  high  order,  and  his  Christian  character  was  ripe 
and  remarkable.  The  key-note  of  this  character  was  struck  at  the  outset 
of  his  religious  life.  The  question,  "  Is  it  pleasing  to  God  ?  "  decided  all 
his  religious  actions.  In  his  conversion  he  gave  himself  without  conscious 
reserve  to  God  ;  and  it  was  his  constant  endeavor  to  become  conformed 
to  his  will  and  likeness.  And  God  led  him  by  a  royal  highway,  through 
sacrifices  of  ambitions,  through  imprisonments,  through  sickness,  through 
sufferings,  through  the  rending  of  the  tenderest  ties,  over  the  graves  of 
loved  ones,  through  appalling  views  of  his  own  sinfulness ;  and  volun- 
tarily abasing  himself  before  God,  the  Most  High  exalted  him.  He 
walked  on  the  mountain  tops  of  holiness. 

Judson  was  a  man  of  strong  convictions.  To  believe  that  a  principle 
was  right,  and  not  to  embrace  it;  to  see  that  a  course  was  duty,  and  not 
to  pursue  it ;  to  hesitate  in  accepting  the  consequences  which  his  convic- 
tions involved,  was  impossible  to  his  mental  and  moral  constitution.  He 
believed  in  God  and  in  sin,  in  eternal  life  and  in  eternal  death ;  he  be- 
lieved it  his  duty  to  save  souls  from  that  death,  and  it  was  his  purpose 
to  live  for  that  life.  With  these  convictions  he  cheerfully  yielded  his 
ambitions,  he  voluntarily  turned  his  back  on  paths  in  which  he  might 
have  won  success.  Gifted  in  many  ways  he  might  have  excelled  in  many 
things.  He  made  high  attainments  as  a  scholar,  he  was  brilliant  as  a 
writer,  he  was  eloquent  as  a  speaker,  the  English  government  acknowl- 
edged his  capacity  for  statesmanship.  But  none  of  these  things  turned 
hiui  from  the  direct  work  of  giving  the  gospel  to  men.     He  mastered 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JOHN  WILLIAMS.  849 

the  Barman  language,  and  the  results  are  among  the  most  remarkable 
in  the  field  of  philology,  and  mastered  it  to  give  to  the  Burman  peo- 
ple our  sacred  writings  in  such  a  form  as  might  convey  the  precise  mind 
of  the  Spirit.  To  do  this,  no  effort  was  too  great.  He  added  the  Pali, 
a  difficult  language,  because  it  contributed  its  aid,  but  we  hear  no  word 
of  it  from  him.  He  could  repeat  Burmese  and  Pali  poetry  by  the  hour, 
but  he  would  not  deviate  from  his  one  purpose  to  transcribe  it.  He  en- 
joyed its  literature,  but  he  would  not  give  one  hour  to  selfish  gratification 
in  the  acquisition  of  it. 

It  was  the  requirement  of  his  nature  to  do  everything  in  the  best 
manner.  As  our  natural  character  gives  direction  and  color  to  our  relig- 
ious character,  so,  in  him,  this  law  within  gave  direction  and  complete- 
ness to  his  religious  life. 

To  do  jierfectly  was  the  necessity  of  his  mind ;  to  be  pure  within  was 
the  demand  of  his  inner  soul.  To  do  perfectly,  with  a  pure  heart,  the 
will  of  God  made  his  life  a  grand  unity;  his  death,  a  triumph  over  death; 
the  life  beyond,  unspeakable  glory.  —  H.  H.  K. 


LIFE   XXXVin.    JOHN  WILLIAMS. 

A.    D.    1796-A.    D.    1839.       CONGREGATIONAL,  —  OCEANICA. 

John  Williams,  the  apostle  of  the  islands  of  the  South  Seas,  was 
born  June  29,  1796,  at  Tottenham  High  Cross,  near  London.  His  father, 
a  business  man,  troubled  himself  but  little  about  the  education  and  the 
inner  life  of  his  children.  Williams  must  be  numbered  with  that  great 
company  of  God's  workmen  whose  hearts  their  mothers  nurtured  in  the 
faith  through  prayer  and  precept  and  a  quiet  walk  with  God.  Yet  Will- 
iams's mother  was  not  unaided.  A  loving  grandmother  was  allied  with 
her  in  her  devoted  labors.  A  Timothy-like  picture  rises  then  before  us, 
with  a  Eunice  and  a  Lois,  who  led  to  God  a  gifted,  lively  boy  in  his  ear- 
liest years,  and  sowed  the  seeds  of  holiness  in  his  heart.  Their  sowing 
took  root.  The  times  of  devotion  in  the  boy's  home  became  his  glad 
hours.  Falsehood  grew  to  be  to  him  like  poison.  In  his  school  years, 
without  his  mother  knowing  it,  he  composed  a  morning  and  an  evening 
prayer,  —  the  one  in  prose,  the  other  in  poetry.  They  were  a  beautiful 
reflection  of  his  fervor  of  spirit.  When  he  was  fourteen,  he  left  home, 
his  parents  apprenticing  him  to  a  well-to-do  iron  manufacturer  of  London, 
named  Tonkin.  He  was  expected  to  learn  only  the  business  of  selling 
the  goods,  and  not  the  theory  or  practice  of  making  them.  Yet  he  ac- 
quired both  the  latter.  His  talent  and  liking  for  the  practical  part  of 
the  work  was  so  great  that  he  spent  all  his  leisure  hours  in  the  smithy. 
He  learned  to  fashion  some  articles  so  aptly  and  neatly  that  they  went 
54 


850  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

from  his  hand  direct  to  the  shop  or  to  the  show-window.  How  this  dex- 
An  excellent  terity  was  to  serve  him  later  on  in  life  was  hid  from  him, 
mechanic.  |ju|;  ^as  known   to  God.     The  way  in  which    He    trained 

Williams  so  wisely  and  well  moves  our  wonder.  Nothing  was  wanting  in 
the  preparation  of  the  future  missionary.  Even  the  errors  of  the  youth 
were  made  by  God  to  serve  his  purpose.  There  are  brooks  which,  from 
their  source  to  their  end  in  sea  or  river,  remain  pure,  clear,  and  trans- 
parent. They  are  detained  in  no  slough,  toiling  through  it  with  difl&- 
culty.  Of  few  men  can  the  like  be  affirmed  as  to  their  spiritual  career. 
Few  go  in  undistui'bed  course  from  childhood  on  through  youth  to  true 
manhood  in  Christ  Jesus.  Even  Williams's  life  found  its  way,  which 
was  prepared  by  a  mother's  and  a  grandmother's  prayers,  lost  amid  the 
unclean  waters  of  the  world  and  the  flesh.  God's  Word  was  forgotten, 
prayer  neglected,  the  church  abandoned.  DrinkiDg-places  were  fre- 
quented. Loose  company  was  sought,  to  the  reproach  of  the  name  of 
Christ.     Yet  his  life  outwardly  was  honest. 

God's  workman  was  not  to  be  ruined  by  Satan.  His  career  in  sin  was 
quietly  yet  effectively  checked.  Sunday,  January  30,  1814,  Mistress 
Tonkin  went  in  the  evening  to  a  religious  meeting.  By  the  light  of  a 
street  lamp  she  recognized  her  apprentice  walking  to  and  fro  in  front  of 
a  drinking-place,  and  asked  him  what  he  was  seeking.  Young  Williams 
answered  frankly  that  he  was  waiting  there  for  his  friends,  with  whom 
he  was  expecting  to  pass  a  jolly  night.  He  was  out  of  humor  that  they 
were  not  prompt  at  the  hour,  but  were  making  him  wait  for  so  long  a 
time.  The  good  woman,  knowing  that  she  ought  to  act  a  mother's  part 
to  the  youth,  very  decidedly  asked  him  to  attend  her  and  go  to  church 
instead  of  to  a  drinkiug-shop.  After  some  resistance,  the  youth  gave 
himself  up  to  be  her  prisoner.  He  little  thought  that  this  very  evening 
he  should  become  a  prisoner  and  a  bondman  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
preacher,  who  was  named  East,  expounded  the  saying,  "  What  shall  it 
profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  " 
He  spoke  from  the  heart  to  the  heart.  The  eyes  of  Williams  were  opened. 
He  saw  his  need,  but  he  saw  at  the  same  moment  God's  royal  way  of 
safety  prepared  and  opened  through  Christ  Jesus.  To-night  the  brook 
burst  forth  from  the  stagnant  slough,  and  began  flowing  on  in  its  fixed 
channel  to  the  sea  of  Eternal  Love.  Williams  turned  to  God's  Word 
with  diligence  and  zeal.  The  church  and  the  sacrament  became  dear  to 
him.  The  whole  gospel,  the  God-Man,  his  deeds  and  his  words,  became 
to  him  living  realities.  The  Holy  Spirit  illumined  his  heart  with  glad- 
ness. He  grew  in  the  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  his  Lord  and  Sav- 
iour Jesus  Christ.  His  mother's  love  had  sown  the  seed,  his  mistress's 
His  quiet  church  faithfulness  had  saved  it,  the  preacher  had  nourished  it. 
training.  Other  help  now  came  to  give  the  youth  his  full  growth  and 

to  prepare  him  for  his  labors  as  a  missionary.     In  the  parish  of  which 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JOHN  WILLIAMS.  851 

"Williams  was  a  member,  there  was  a  young  people's  association,  whose 
chief  workers  were  thirty  young  men.  The  leader  was  the  pastor, 
Browne  by  name.  It  met  every  Monday  evening  at  eight  o'clock,  and 
opened  with  prayer  and  singing,  after  which  followed  a  discussion  upon 
a  subject  announced  eight  days  before,  introduced  by  an  address  from 
one  of  the  members.  Several  of  the  evenings  during  the  year  were 
reserved  wholly  for  prayer.  Williams  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  and 
efficient  members  of  this  society,  which  proved  to  him  his  university, 
preparing  him  in  part  for  his  future  efforts.  He  learned  here  to  take  up 
a  Scripture  topic  and  to  analyze  and  present  it  in  free,  unhackneyed  lan- 
guage. As  a  teacher  in  the  Sabbath-school  he  employed  the  talent  in- 
trusted to  him,  gaining  by  fidelity  and  aptness  the  affection  of  his  pupils 
and  the  respect  of  his  associates. 

From  one  society  he  passed  into  another.  Already  mission  societies 
were  in  active  existence  in  London  and  vicinity.  Besides  the  anniversa- 
ries, quarterly  meetings  were  held  in  small  districts,  in  which,  by  ad- 
dresses founded  on  the  Bible,  by  prayer,  and  by  reports  from  mission- 
aries, the  members  strengthened  themselves  to  persevere  in  their  work. 
Williams  belonged  to  such  a  circle.  And  here  it  was  that  the  thought 
arose  to  him  whether  he  could  not  be  used  of  God  among  the  heathen. 
It  grew  into  a  most  profound  desire.  Then  followed  a  childlike  prayer, 
"  Lord,  if  it  is  not  thy  plan  and  will  that  I  become  a  missionary,  then 
tear  the  wish  with  all  its  roots  out  of  my  soul."  But  precisely  the  op- 
posite came  to  pass.  The  longing  of  Williams  for  missionary  service 
became  ever  more  active.  He  searched  his  heart  with  all  diligence,  ask- 
ing whether  his  old  nature  had  not  ensnared  him ;  whether  he  was  not 
self-seeking,  or  if  indeed  the  saving  of  poor  lost  souls  was  the  aim  of 
his  labors.  The  longer  he  inquired,  the  more  boldly  he  could  say,  "  I 
will  present  myself  a  sacrifice  to  Him  who  gave  Himself  for  me." 

So,  in  the  year  1816,  he  proflPered  his  services  to  the  London  Mission- 
ary Society,  addressing  a  letter  to  the  directors,  narrating  with  exact 
care  his  inner  and  outer  life.  He  made  the  request,  "  Should  you  con- 
scientiously find  no  opening  to  accept  me,  I  pray  God,  and  ask  of  you, 
that  for  my  soul's  good  you  will  not  in  the  least  wise  encourage  me  to 
seek  the  missionary  office."  It  is  the  language  of  an  upright  man,  and 
one  to  whom  God  will  send  good-speed. 

Williams  passed  the  required  examination,  and  was  accepted  (July, 
1816).  That  he  might  at  once  be  unhindered  in  his  new  calling  he  was 
given,  by  his  master,  the  seven  months  remaining  of  his  apprenticeship. 
Men  being  in  demand,  this  young  man,  so  gifted  and  so  apt  for  every 
work,  was  to  be  sent  out  speedily.  South  Africa  and  Polynesia  were  the 
lands  to  which  the  eyes  of  the  mission  society  were  directed.  Williams 
was  chosen  for  the  latter.  The  laborers  in  the  Society  Islands  especially 
needed  helpers.     The  new  converts  there  without  guidance  would  fall 


852         THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.     [Period  V. 

back  into  paganism.  The  youth  of  twenty  years  should,  within  a  few 
months,  go  thither  in  the  service  of  his  Master,  accompanying  other  mis- 
sionaries. 

The  interval  before  departure  was  employed  by  Williams  in  conscien- 
tious preparation.  The  best  hours  of  each  day,  and  his  chief  strength, 
he  gave  to  training  in  theology  under  his  pastor.  All  his  remaining  time 
he  spent  in  the  shops  of  joiners,  carpenters,  weavers,  and  ship-builders, 
in  printing  offices,  and  in  all  of  them  he  was  actively  at  work.  He  pur- 
posed being  an  intelligent  guide  of  the  pagans  in  external  civilization. 

On  the  30th  of  September,  1816,  he  was  ordained  in  Surrey  Chapel, 
at  the  same  time  with  eight  comrades,  to  the  service  of  God  among  the 
heathen.  A  Bible  was  put  into  his  hand  with  the  words,  "  Go  hence, 
loved  brother,  and  be  faithful  to  the  trust  that  is  given  thee  ;  faithful  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  faithful  in  proclaiming  the  precious  truths 
which  this  book  contains."  Following  these  words,  another  said,  "  Go 
hence,  loved  youth  and  brother,  and  though  thy  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof 
of  thy  mouth,  let  it  still  witness  to  poor  sinners  the  love  of  Jesus ; 
though  thine  arm  fail  thee  and  threaten  to  fall  from  its  socket,  let  it  yet 
knock  at  the  hearts  of  thy  fellow-sinners  till  they  open  to  the  Saviour 
of  the  world."  Upon  this  day  the  heart  of  Williams,  already  offered, 
was  sealed  to  the  service  of  God. 

Before  leaving  England  Williams  was  joined  in  marriage  with  a  Chris- 
tian young  lady  who  faithfully,  to  his  death,  fulfilled  her  promise  to  be 
his  helper  in  his  external  and  in  his  soul  life.  The  17th  of  November, 
Sails  for  the  1816,  he  left  England,  sailing  by  Rio  Janeiro  to  Sydney. 
South  Seas.  Here  he  came  to  know  the  missionary  Marsden,  who  served 
Christ  with  great  self-sacrifice  in  New  Zealand.  A  protracted  delay  in 
Sydney  was  employed  by  Williams  in  service  as  a  preacher  and  a 
teacher,  and  in  gaining  knowledge  regarding  the  people  of  Polynesia. 
At  last,  November  17,  1817,  a  year  after  leaving  England,  he  landed  in 
Eiraeo,  one  of  the  Society  Islands.  His  field  of  work,  assigned  him  in 
common  with  missionary  Threskeld,  was  Rajatea,  an  island  which  longed 
for  the  day,  but  had  not  yet  seen  the  sunrise.  Two  years  before,  mis- 
sionary Wilson,  of  Tahiti,  with  nineteen  native  Christians,  King  Pomare 
among  them,  were  cast  uppn  this  island.  The  king,  Pomatoa,  with  his 
whole  people  received  them  cordially.  In  return  they  opened  their  treas- 
ures, preaching  to  them  a  Saviour.  After  the  departure  of  Wilson  and 
his  party  to  Tahiti,  a  longing  for  instruction  remained  in  Rajatea.  Will- 
iams labored  here  by  himself  from  1817  to  1823.  This  island  was  his 
training  school,  and  the  land  of  his  first  love  ;  a  love  which  never  cooled 
during  his  life.  First  of  all  he  threw  himself  energetically  into  the  work  of 
learning  the  speech  of  the  country.  After  ten  months  he  could  preach  in 
it.  Pomatoa  and  the  rest  of  the  chiefs  met  him  with  assistance  and  friend- 
ship.    In  Williams's  view  the   gospel  and  culture  were  to  advance  to- 


Cent.  XVII.-XIX.]  JOHN  WILLIAMS.  853 

getlier.  He  builded  a  chapel.  He  erected  a  neat  little  house  for  him- 
self, and  to  serve  as  a  model  of  better  dwellings  to  the  natives.  Around 
it  a  well-planned  garden  soon  bloomed  with  flowers  and  food-plants, 
European  and  Polynesian.  Near  it  was  a  school-house  in  which  young 
and  old  were  given  to  drink  the  water  of  life.  Its  blossoms  were  soon 
more  lovely  than  those  in  his  garden.  The  Word  fell  on  receptive  soil. 
Chiefs  and  common  people,  old  men  and  lisping  children,  mothers  carry- 
ing nursing  babes  in  their  arms,  priests  of  Oro  who  wanted  cleansing 
from  shed  blood,  came  into  the  school.  The  king  and  the  queen  seated 
themselves  in  the  row  with  the  rest  as  learners  and  inquirers. 

Rajatea  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  idol  Oro,  to  whom  for  centuries,  be- 
fore and  after  battles,  countless  human  offerings  had  been  devoted.  Will- 
iams, zealous  as  he  was,  was  very  careful  of  making  wild  assaults  on  this 
or  other  idols.  The  wooden  images  would  be  thrust  down  from  their 
seats  when  they  had  fallen  from  their  places  in  the  hearts  of  their  wor- 
shipers.    Here  in  Raiatea.  a  plan  was  developed  in  Will- 

.  ,  .     ,   «  '.       ,        .     .  ,  ^        ,     ,  His  broad  plan. 

lams  s  mind  for  a  systematized  mission  to  be  extended  over 
the  maze  of  surrounding  groups  of  South  Sea  Islands.  Three  helpers 
were  wanted  in  the  service  of  the  Master,  a  printing-press,  a  mission- 
ship,  and  native  agency.  Primary  books  and  eleven  hundred  cojjies  of 
Luke's  Gospel,  which  had  been  brought  out  in  the  language  of  the  re- 
gion through  a  missionary  (Ellis),  were  soon  sold  upon  the  island.  By 
and  by  the  entire  New  Testament  was  printed.  Williams  bought  the 
first  mission-ship  in  the  South  Seas,  and  established  a  connection  between 
New  South  Wales  and  the  islands.  Himself,  the  London  society,  and 
Governor  Brisbane,  of  New  South  Wales,  bore  the  cost.  Later,  he 
builded  a  ship  of  his  own,  in  order  to  have  it  entirely  at  his  own  dis- 
posal. Before  long  he  drew  his  converts  into  mission-work.  Not  only 
was  a  mission  aid  society  founded,  but  pious  and  gifted  youths  were 
trained  by  him  for  service  in  the  schools,  and  for  evangelizing  labors 
on  the  neighboi'ing  islands.  The  islanders  proved  themselves  intelli- 
gent, admirable  servants  of  God,  joyful  even  unto  death.  By  his  advice 
the  king  of  Rajatea  gave  this  and  other  islands  ruled  by  him  a  law- 
book grounded  upon  God's  Word.  To  secure  a  more  certain  sustenance 
for  the  people,  who  hitherto  had  depended  upon  fishing  and  upon  the 
fruits  of  the  islands,  sugar  plantations  were  begun.  A  great  church  was 
builded  under  Williams's  leadership,  to  serve  as  the  cathedral  of  this 
group  of  islands.  And  for  all  these  activities  the  toiler  drew  strength 
and  wisdom  from  the  unfailing  fountain  of  the  Divine  Word.  All  who 
beheld  Williams,  either  here  or  later  in  his  work  upon  the  Harvey  and 
the  Samoa  Islands,  were  amazed  at  his  freshness,  his  elasticity,  and  his 
firm  hold  upon  his  work. 

Amid  this  comprehensive  activity,  which,  during  his  stay  upon  Rajatea, 
reached  to  Baraboa  (of  the   Society  Islands),  Rurutu,  Raratonga,  Aitu- 


854  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

taki  (of  the  Harvey  or  Tubuai  Islands),  Williams  heartily  and  tenderly 
cherished  his  connection  with  his  home. ,  A  real  treasure  lies  before  us 
in  his  precious  letters  to  his  kindred.  This  correspondence  reached  its 
acme  when  he  heard  of  the  death  of  his  mother,  so  far  away  from  him. 
With  thanksgivings  for  this,  that  such  a  mother  had  been  given  him  of 
God,  with  sorrow  and  tears  for  her  loss,  are  mingled  fresh  praises  for 
her  entrance  into  glory.  He  knocks,  too,  how  softly,  at  the  hearts  of  his 
loved  ones  with  admonitions  and  with  prayers  that  they  abide  true  to 
God,  so  that  their  deaths  may  be  like  hers,  the  death  of  the  righteous.  He 
ventures  —  a  hard  task  for  a  son  —  to  preach  repentance  and  salvation  to 
his  father,  beseeching  him  to  yield  his  heart  to  the  Master  who  so  long  has 
wooed  him,  especially  through  his  beloved  life-companion.  The  letters 
show  a  wondrous  delicacy.  What  joy  to  Williams  when  missionary  Nott, 
His  father's  ^^^^  visited  his  father  on  his  dying  bed,  sent  his  last  greeting 
message  to  him.  jq  i^jg  gQ^  ^j^h  the  following  message,  "  Tell  him,  oh  tell 
him,  that  the  sou  has  been  the  means  of  the  saving  of  the  father." 

In  the  years  from  1823  to  1830  Williams  had  journeyed  several  times 
to  the  Harvey  Islands.  The  native  teachers  did  excellent  service  there. 
He  himself,  by  his  meekness,  love,  truth,  and  unfailing  faith,  exercised 
an  almost  incredible  influence  over  the  people.  After  a  few  years  the 
idols  fell,  and  the  entire  people  were  either  baptized  or  under  instruc- 
tion for  baptism.  Upon  Raratonga  a  church  was  builded,  which  was 
thronged  on  Sundays  by  some  two  thousand  Christians.  Yet  this  serv- 
ant of  God  pressed  restlessly  forward.  His  i^rogress  was  from  east  to 
west.  While  other  missionaries  with  native  helpers  labored  on  Rajatea 
and  the  Harvey  Islands,  he,  the  pathfinder,  turned  to  the  Samoa  group 
(Sawaii,  Upolu,  Tutuila,  etc.),  and  sailed  thither  May  24,  1830.  First 
he  visited  the  Friendly  Islands  (Tongatabu,  Wawau,  Eua,  etc.).  He 
found  there  the  missionaries  of  other  societies,  who  gave  him  the  hand 
of  friendship.  It  was  resolved  that  no  one  should  interfere  with  another's 
field  of  labor,  and  that  the  Samoa  Islands  should  be  left  to  Williams. 
God's  blessing  went  with  him.  On  Sawaii,  he  met  a  welcome  from  Chief 
Melietoa,  and  after  a  few  years,  out  of  sixty  or  seventy  thousands  of  na- 
tives, fifty  thousand  were  either  bai^tized  or  under  preparation  for  bap- 
tism. He  was  aided  here  by  the  fact  that  the  people  had  no  idols  except 
the  god  of  war.  Yet  there  was  no  lack  of  pagan  cruelties  and  unholy 
superstitions.  Everywhere  around  Williams  found  the  fields  white,  while 
the  laborers  were  few.  Sore  wars,  too,  were  prevailing.  If  a  king  be- 
came Christian,  some  chief  made  use  of  the  spite  of  the  pagan  element, 
collected  it  about  him,  and  sought  with  its  aid  to  displace  the  king 
and  to  enthrone  himself  along  with  his  idols.  Several  petty  wars  were 
carried  on,  which  through  the  clemency  of  the  Christian  kings  redounded 
to  the  glory  of  Christianity.  False  teacliers  sprang  up  among  the  young 
Christians,  who  were  often  disposed  to  receive  their  strange  messages. 


Cent.  XVIL-XIX.]  ■  JOHN  WILLIAMS.  855 

European  liquor-sellers  and  deserting  sailors  proved  pests  to  the  volatile 
islanders.  Williams,  with  his  faithful  comrades  (Pitman,  Barf,  and  Biiza- 
cotte),  kept  watch  and  removed  obstacles.  It  was  easier,  then,  to  awaken 
souls  to  religion  than  to  preserve  them  in  a  religious  course  of  life. 

Williams,  to  promote  his  work,  returned  home.  He  wished  to  kindle 
the  zeal  for  the  Polynesian  mission  into  a  clearer  flame,  and  Hjsfour  ears  at 
he  succeeded.  Arriving  in  England  June  12,  1834,  after  'lo™- 
eighteen  years'  absence,  he  remained  at  home  for  four  years.  They 
were  years  when  the  love  of  missions  in  England  and  in  all  evangelical 
Europe  was  greatly  increased.  Williams  magnified  the  works  of  God  by 
enthusiastic  speeches,  ever  bearing  the  stamp  of  genuineness,  which  he 
delivered  in  great  assemblies  before  the  high  and  the  low.  He  also 
wrote  a  book,  "  Missionary  Enterprises  in  the  South  Sea  Islands."  He 
received  from  all  sides  favorable  reports  from  it.  Thirty-eight  thousand 
copies  were  sold  within  nine  years.  His  chief  desire,  to  have  a  suitable 
mission-ship,  fit  for  any  sea,  was  granted.  With  free-will  offerings  he 
was  able  to  purchase  the  Camden  for  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling.  By 
especial  providence  a  pious  and  skilled  captain  was  given  him,  —  Captain 
Morgan.  Nine  new  jmissionaries  were  to  accompany  him  on  his  return. 
On  the  day  of  his  departure,  April  11,  1838,  London  was  in  a  commo- 
tion, as  if  a  conquering  king  was  going  out  to  war.  The  very  pilot,  who 
was  entitled  to  twenty  or  twenty-five  pounds,  wished  to  add  his  services, 
in  taking  the  ship  out,  to  the  contributions  of  the  multitude.  Williams, 
having  for  the  last  time  taken  the  Lord's  Supper  in  a  home  church,  went 
his  way  joyously  with  his  wife  and  his  new  comrades.  In  his  soul  was 
engraved  the  motto,  "  Neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  me."  He  went 
round  the  Cape  to  New  South  Wales.  In  Sydney  he  formed  a  mission 
aid  society  for  Australia,  who  gave  five  hundred  pounds  as  their  first 
contribution  for  his  work.  He  left  Sydney  October  25th,  and  arrived 
prosperously  at  Tutuila,  one  of  the  Samoa  Islands. 

The  following  year  was  for  Williams  a  most  glad  time.     He  visited 
again  all  the  groups,  the  Society,  Harvey,  and  Samoa  Isl- 

°T  .  in  .  .  .,  His  joyous  re- 

ands.  As  corn  and  flowers  grow  m  warm  sprmg  nights,  so  tum  to  the 
the  work  of  God  had  grown  in  his  absence.  Everywhere 
beautiful  white  churches  gleamed  from  the  island  upon  his  sight,  builded 
during  the  four  years.  Everywhere  the  young  societies  extended  to  him 
a  welcome  as  to  a  father  coming  home,  and  such  he  was.  It  was  a  jubi- 
lee which  almost  overwhelmed  him.  Many  a  one,  who  at  his  departure 
was  a  stubborn  pagan,  met  him  as  a  happy  child  of  God.  His  path  was 
through  a  lovely  harvest  field.  He  saw  that  the  work  was  in  good  hands 
and  was  growing  abundantly.  He  wanted  to  go  beyond.  Before  him 
lay  the  New  Hebrides  and  New  Caledonia.  Upon  November  8,  1839, 
he  kept,  on  Upola,  along  with  his  Samoans  and  his  own  family,  his  last 
Sunday.     He  preached  from  Acts  xx.  36,  "  And  when  He  had  thus 


856  THE   CHURCH'S  REFORMED  PROGRESS.    [Period  V. 

spoken,  He  kneeled  down  and  prayed  with  them  all."  He  had  asked  the 
teachers  of  the  Samoa  congregation  who  of  them  would  go  in  the  Mas- 
ter's service  among  the  people  of  the  New  Hebrides.  Thirty  chosen 
men  proffered  themselves.  Williams  selected  twelve  of  them,  and  or- 
dained them  as  evangelists.  With  them  went  missionary  Cunningham 
and  a  young  Englishman  named  Harris,  who  was  staying  at  the  islands 
for  his  health,  but  was  so  taken  with  Williams  that  he  wished  to  go  with 
him  to  the  west  before  returning  to  England,  to  fit  himself  for  mission 
duty.  They  sailed  westward  November  4th  ;  on  the  islands  Roturna  and 
Tanna  they  left  two  teachers,  having  first  satisfied  themselves  of  the 
friendliness  of  the  people.  November  20th  they  cast  anchor  off  the  coast 
of  Erromanga.  The  dwellers  on  this  island  were  the  last  to  whom  Will- 
iams offered  the  pearl  of  great  price.     They  came  down  to 

His  martyrdom.  .        ^, 

the  shore  of  Dillon  Bay.     Williams,  with  Cunningham  and 
Harris,  went  in  a  boat  near  the  land.     The  chief  brought  at  their  request 

—  which  they  made  known  by  signs,  for  the  speech  of  the  islands  was 
strange  to  all  three  —  a  vessel  of  water.  Confiding  in  the  favor  thus 
shown,  the  three  stepped  ashore.  When  they  thought  they  had  won  the 
hearts  of  the  islanders,  by  making  some  little  presents,  they  went  some 
distance  inland.  Suddenly  the  natives  attacked  them  with  their  war 
clubs.  Harris  was  struck  down  upon  the  land ;  Williams  in  the  shallow 
water,  thi'ough  which  he  was  escaping  to  the  boat.  Cunningham  alone 
escaped.  This  was  November  20,  1839.  The  real  murderers  of  Will- 
iams were  perhaps  the  sandal-wood  merchants,  who  had  shed  much  in- 
nocent blood  on  that  coast,  and  had  stirred  the  natives  to  revenge  them- 
selves upon  all  white  men.  The  body  of  Williams  was  eaten  by  the 
savages.  His  fate  was  mourned  by  the  young  ChiistianS  in  Samoa  and 
other  islands,  as  by  children.  The  blessing  which  he  had  brought 
to  them  remained.  He  still  lives  a  model  missionary  in  his  faith  and 
love  and  hearty  devotion,  in  his  plans  of  raising  up  native  helpers,  in  his 
union  of  external  culture,  such  as  may  suit  the  circumstances  of  a  people, 
with  the  culture  of  the  heart  through  Christ  Jesus.  With  right  has  he 
been  named  the  Apostle  of  the  South  Seas.  No  other  man  exerted  so 
deep  and  so  blessed  an  influence  upon  the  lives  of  that  far-away  people. 

—  F.  A. 


APPENDIX. 


I. 

IIOLL   OF   WRITERS   OF  THE  LIVES   OF  THE  LEADERS   OF   OUR 
CHURCH  UNIVERSAL. 

EUKOPEAN  WKITERS. 

F.  A.  The  Rev.  Dr.  F.  Ahlfeld,  Pastor  in  Leipzig John  Williams. 

F.  A.  The  Eev.  Dr.  Fkiedeich  Aendt,  Pastor  in  Berlin   ....      Anxie  Askew. 

C.  B.  The  Rev.  Dr.  C  Becker,  Pastor  in  Konigsberg Wishart. 

C.  B.  The  Rev.  Dr.  C.  Bindemann,  Church  Superintendent  in  Grim- 
men    Monica,  Augustine, 

B.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Bouterwek,  Director    of    Gymnasium,    Elber- 

feld Columba,  Aidan. 

The  Rev.  J.  C.  F.  Bukk,  Pastor  in  Echterdingen        Bengel. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  David  Eedmann,  Church  General  Superintend- 
ent, Breslau Baxter. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  A.  E.  Fkohlich,  Professor,  Aarau,  Switzer- 
land   Zioingle,  Lahorie. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  K.  Fkommann,  Church  General  Superintendent  in 

Petersburg Zeisherger. 

Tlie  Rev.  Dr.  K.  R.  Hagenbach,  Professor  of  Theology,  Basel, 

Switzerland     .     .     .  Clement,  Athanasius,  QHcolainjiadius,  Renata,  Beza. 

The  Rev.  J.  Hartmann,  Dean  in  Tuttlingen Brentz. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  K.  Hase,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Jena  ....  Savonarola. 

The  Eev.  Dr.  F.  R.  Hasse,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Bonn     .     .         Anselm. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Feed.  Haupt,  Pastor  in  Gronau Eildegard. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  P.  Henry,  Pastor  in  Berlin Calvin. 

The   Rev.  Dr.   H.  Heppe,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Marburg, 

Cranmer,  Ifooper,  William  of  Orange. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  L.  Heubnee,  Director  of  Seminary,  Wittenberg  .  Luther. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Wilhelm  Hoffmann,  Church  General  Superin- 
tendent, Berlin John  of  Monte  Corvino. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Hundeshagen,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Bonn    .         Ursinus. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Christian  H.  Kalkae,  Pastor  in  Copenhagen    .  Egede. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Che.  Fe.  Kling,  Dean  in  Marbach Origen. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Fred.  W.  Krummacher,  Court  Preacher  in  Pots- 
dam        Lawrence,  Chrysostom,  Huss,  Gerhardt,  Oherlin. 

G.  L.  The  Eev.  Dr.  Gotthakd  Lechlee,  Professor  of  Theology  in 

Leipzig Bede,  Wiclif,  Oldcastle,  Ridley. 

H.  L.  The  Rev.  Dr.  H.  Leo,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Halle     .     .     .         Patrick. 

P.  L.  The  Eev.  Dr.  Peter  Lorimer,  Professor  in  Presbj'terian  Col- 
lege, London Hamilton. 

F.  L.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Feed.  Lubkee,  Director  of  Gymnasium  in  Flens- 

burg Columban,  Boniface,  Alfred. 


C. 

F. 

B. 

D. 

E. 

A. 

E. 

F. 

K. 

F. 

K. 

R. 

H. 

J. 

H. 

K. 

H. 

F. 

R. 

H. 

F. 

H. 

P. 

H. 

H. 

H. 

L. 

H. 

W 

.  H 

H. 

C. 

H. 

K. 

C. 

F. 

K. 

F 

W. 

,  K. 

H 

.  F.  M. 

H 

.  V'M. 

C. 

B.  M. 

A, 

,  M. 

A. 

,  N. 

E. 

N. 

J. 

J.  V'O. 

J. 

C.  T.  0. 

R. 

P. 

F. 

P. 

T. 

P. 

F. 

R. 

A. 

R. 

L. 

R. 

J. 

D.  R. 

K. 

G.  R. 

K. 

H.  S. 

C. 

S. 

868  APPENDIX. 

T.  M,             The  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  MacCrie,  Professor  in  Presbyterian  Col- 
lege, London John  Knox, 

Dr.  H.  F.  Massmann,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Berlin  .     .     .  Ulfilas. 

The  Rev.  H.  Von  Meez,  Church  Prelate  in  Stuttgart, 

Roussel,  Schwartz,  Martyn,  Wilberforce,  Fry. 
C.  B.  Moll,  Church  General  Superintendent,  Konigsberg      .     .  Wessel. 

The  Rev.  Adolf  Monod,  Pastor  in  Paris,  France Blandina. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  August  Neander,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Ber- 
lin            Bernard,  Aquinas,  Melancthon. 

E.  NoELDECHEN,  Head  Teacher,  Magdeburg Claudius. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  J.  Van  Oosterzee,  Professor  of  Theology  in 

Utrecht Thomas  a  Kempia. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  C.  T.  Otto,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Vienna    .  Cyril. 

Dr.  Reinhold  Pauli,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Gottingen, 

Alfred  the  Great. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Ferdinand  Piper,  Professor  of  Theology,  Berlin   .     Polycarp. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  T.  Pressel,  Dean  in  Schorndorf Rabaut. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  F.  Ranke,  Director  of  Gymnasium,  Berlin, 

Perpetua,  Hans  Sachs,  Peterson. 

The  Rev.  A.  Rische,  Pastor  in  Schwinkendorf King  Louis. 

The  Rev.  Louis  Rognon,  Pastor  in  Paris CoUgny. 

The  Rev.  J.  D.  Rothmund,  Pastor  in  St.  Gall Gall. 

The  Rev.  K.  G.  Von  Rudloff,  Cathedral  Preacher  in  Nisky,  Guthrie,  MacKail. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  K.  H.  Sack,  Chief  Consistory  Councilor,  Bonn,  John  Wesley. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  C.  Schmidt,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Strassburg, 

Remy,  Tauler. 
H.  E.  S.        The  Rev.  Dr.  H.  E.  Schmieder,  Director  of  Seminary,  Witten- 
berg .  Paphnutius,  Spiridion,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  Austin,  Waldo,  Magda- 

lena  Luther,  Palearlo,  Zinzendorf. 
K.  S.  The  Rev.  Dr.  K.  Semisch,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Berlin, 

Ignatius,  Justin,  Irenmus. 
C.  W.  S.        The  Rev.  Dr.  C.  W.  Starstedt,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Lund, 

Sweden Ansgar. 

A.  T.  The  Rev.  Dr.   August   Tholuck,  Professor  of  Theology  in 

Halle    .    .     .     i Spener,  Francke. 

F.  T.  The  Rev.  F.  Trechsel,  Pastor  in  Berne,  Switzerland  ....  Farel. 

J.  O.  V.         The  Rev.  J.  0.  Vaihinger,  Cathedral  Preacher  in  Cannstadt, 

Gustavus  Adolphus. 
L.  W.  The  Rev.  L.  Wiese,  Church  Counselor  in  Berlin Cyprian. 

AMERICAN  WRITERS. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  H.  C.  Alexander,  Professor  in  Union  Theological 

Seminary,  Hampden-Sidney,  Va Alexander, 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Robeht  Beard,  Professor  in  Theological  Semi- 

navy,  Lebanon,  Tenn Donnell. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  C.  W.  Bennett,  Professor  in  Theological  Depart- 
ment of  Syracuse  University,  Syracuse,  N.  Y Fisk. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  W.  M.  Blackburn,  Professor  in  Theological  Semi- 
nary of  Northwest,  Chicago,  111.       .    Maiemie,  Dickinson,  Witherspoon. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  S.  L.  Caldwell,  President  of  Vassar  College, 

Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y Manning. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Rufus  W.  Clark,  Pastor  in  Albany,  N.  Y.      .    .    Livingston. 

Mrs.  Helen  Finney  Cox,  Cincinnati,  O Finney. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  Professor  in  Theological  School, 

Yale  College,  New  Haven,  Conn Dwight. 

J.  H.  G.         The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Good,  Professor  in  Theological  Department, 

Heidelberg  College,  Tidin,  0 Schlatter 


H. 

C. 

A. 

R. 

B. 

C.W. 

B. 

W 

.  M 

.  B. 

S. 

L. 

C. 

R. 

W. 

,  C. 

H. 

,  F. 

c. 

T. 

D. 

APPENDIX.  859 

L.  G.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Lewis  Grout,  late  Missionary  to  South  Africa,  W. 

Brattleboro,  Vt Vanderlcemp. 

A.  A.  H.       The  Rev.  Dr.  Arch.  A.  Hodge,  Professor  in  Theological  Semi- 

nary, Princeton,  N.  J Hodge. 

S.  H.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins,  Professor  in  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Auburn,  N.  Y Brewster,  Hopkins. 

Z.  H.  The   Rev.   Dr.   Zephaniah    Humphreys,    Professor    in  Lane 

Theological  Seminary,  Cincinnati,  O Edwards. 

J.  B.  J.  The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter,  Editor  of  the  Religious  Herald,  Rich- 
mond, Va Fuller. 

H.  J.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Herrick  Johnson,  Professor  in  Theological  Serai- 
nary,  Auburn,  N.  Y Barnes. 

H.  K.  Mrs.  Helen  Kendrick,  Rochester,  N.  Y Judson. 

H.  L.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Heman  Lincoln,  Professor  in  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Newton  Centre,  Mass Wayland. 

H.  M.  M.      The  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  M.  MacCracken,  Pastor  in  Toledo,  0., 

Isabella  Graham. 

J.  M.  P.        The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Pendleton,  Pastor  in  Upland,  Pa.     .    .    .  Feck. 

W.  K.  P.      The  Rev.  Dr.  W.  K.  Pendleton,  President  of  Bethany  College, 

Bethany,  W.  Va Campbell. 

B.  F.  P.         The  Rev.  B.  F.  Prince,  Professor  in  Wittenberg  College,  Spring- 

field, 0 Muhlenberg. 

W.  B.  S.       The  Rev.  Dr.  W.  Bacon  Stevens,  Bishop  of  the  Pennsylvania 

Diocese  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Philadelphia    .  White. 

H.  B.  S.        Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Hartford,  Conn.    .     .     .     Lyman  Beecher. 

T.  0.  S.         The  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  0.  Summers,  Professor  of  Theology  in 

Vanderbilt  University,  Nashville,  Tenn MacKendree. 

J.  W.  The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  Weaver,  Bishop  of  the  United  Brethren,  Day- 
ton, 0 Otterbein. 

T.  W.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Webster,  Pastor  in  Newbury,  Canada    .  Asbury. 

S.  W.  W.  The  Hon.  S.  Wells  Williams,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Chinese  Lit- 
erature, Yale  College,  New  Haven,  Conn Morrison. 

R.  Y.  The  Rev.  R.  Yeakel,  Bishop  of   the  Evangelical  Association, 

Naperville,  111 Albright. 

D.  R.  K.  The  Rev.  Dr.  David  R.  Kerr,  Professor  in  Theological  Sem- 
inary, Alleghany,  Pa Pressly. 

A.  W.  The  Rev.  Dr.  A.  Webster,  Pastor  in  Baltimore,  Md Stockton. 


860 


APPENDIX. 


n. 


COMPLETE   EOLL   OF  LIVES.i 


JANUARY. 

FEBRUARY. 

^           MARCH. 

1. 

New  Year 

A.  D. 

1. 

IGNATIUS  .     . 

A.  D. 

107 

1. 

Suidbert  .     .     .     . 

A.  D. 

713 

2. 

Martyrs  of  the  Books  303 

2. 

!Mary  [Purification] 

Bible 

2. 

JOHN       WES- 

3. 

Gordius,  Martyr     . 

303 

3. 

ANSGAK .     .     . 

865 

LEY     .     .     .     . 

1791 

4. 

Titus 

Bible 

4. 

Rabanus  Maurus     . 

856 

3. 

Balthilde       .      .     . 

680 

5. 

Simeon    .... 

Bible 

5. 

SPENER .     .     . 

1705 

4. 

WISHART    .      . 

1546 

6. 

Christ     and     Wise 

6. 

Amandus 

679 

5. 

AQUINAS     .     . 

1274 

Men       .... 

Bible 

7. 

Geo.  Wagner 

1527 

6. 

Fridolin    .     .     .     . 

514 

7. 

Widukind 

785 

8. 

Mary  Andreii      .     . 

1632 

7. 

PERPETUA      . 

202 

8. 

Severinus       .     .     . 

482 

9. 

HOOPER .     .     . 

1555 

8. 

URSINUS      .     . 

1583 

9. 

Catharine  Zell     .     . 

1562 

10. 

Oetiuger  .     .     .     . 

1782 

9. 

CYRIL      .     .     . 

869 

10. 

Paul  the  Hermit 

340 

11. 

Hugo  St.  Victor     . 

1142 

10. 

Martyrs  in  Armenia 

320 

11. 

Fructuosus     .'     .     . 

259 

12. 

Jane  Grey     .     .     . 

1554 

11. 

Hoseus      .     .     .     . 

1566 

12. 

John  Chastellain 

1525 

13. 

SCHWARTZ     . 

1798 

12. 

Gregory    .     .     .     . 

604 

13. 

Hilary  of  France 

368 

14. 

Bruno       .     .     .     . 

1008 

13. 

Itoderick  .     .     .     . 

857 

14. 

Felix 

256 

15. 

Von  Loh 

1561 

14. 

Matilda    .     .     .     . 

963 

15. 

John  Laski    .     .     . 

1560 

16. 

Desubas   .     .     .     . 

1746 

15. 

CRANMER  .     . 

1556 

16. 

Geo.  Spalatin     .     . 

1545 

17. 

HAMILTON      . 

1528 

10. 

Heribert    .     .     .     . 

968 

17. 

Antony  the  Hermit 

356 

18. 

SYMEON .     .     . 

107 

17. 

PATRICK      .     . 

460 

18. 

Jno.  Blackader    .     . 

1686 

19. 

Mesrob     .     .     .     . 

441 

18. 

Alexander     .     .      . 

251 

19. 

t  Babylas       .     .     . 
j  Isabella       .     .     . 

250 
1526 

20. 
21. 

Sadoth     .     .      .     . 
Meinrad   .     .     .     . 

346 
863 

19. 
20. 

Mary  and  Martha 
Ambrose  of  Siena    . 

Bible 
1287 

20. 

(  Fabian  .... 
j  Sebastian   .     .     . 

250 
304 

22. 
23. 

Didymus  .     .     .     . 
Ziegenbalg     . 

395 
1719 

21. 
22. 

Benedict  .     .     .     . 
Nicolas  the  Hermit 

543 
1488 

21. 

Agnes       .... 

304 

24. 

Matthew  .     .     .     . 

Bible 

23. 

Wolfgang 

1566 

22. 

Vincentius     . 

304 

25. 

Olevian     .     .     .     . 

1587 

24. 

Floreutius      .     .     . 

1400 

23. 

Isaiah 

Bible 

26. 

Haller       .     .     .     . 

1536 

25. 

Mary      [Aimuncia^ 

24. 

Timothy  .... 

Bible 

27. 

Bueer 

1551 

tion] 

Bible 

25. 

Paul  [Conversion] 

Bible 

28. 

JOHN              OF 

26. 

Liudger   .     .     .     . 

809 

26. 

POLYCARP       . 

167 

MONTE  COR- 

27. 

Eupert     .     .     .     . 

718 

27 

CHRYSOSTOM 

407 

VINO  .     .     .     . 

1306 

28. 

Von  Goch      .     .     . 

1475 

28 

Charlemagne 

814 

29. 

Ethelbert  [assigned 

29. 

Eustace    .     .     .     . 

625 

29. 

Juventus,  etc.     .     . 

363 

also  to  24th  Feb- 

30. 

Ileermann      .     .     . 

1647 

30. 

Henry  Miiller     .     . 

1675 

ruary]. 

31. 

Ernst  of  Saxony .     . 

1675 

31 

HANS  SACHS 

157G 

1  As  edited  in  Germany  by  Dr.  Ferdinand  Piper,  corre.«ponding  with  the  names  for  all  the  days  of 
the  year  in  the  Improveil  Evangeliral  Calendar,  The  lives  translated  into  English  and  edited  in  the 
present  work  are  printed  in  capitals.  The  figures  after  names  indicate  the  year  of  some  principal 
event  in  the  life  referred  to,  usually  of  its  beginning  or  close. 


APPENDIX. 


861 


COMPLETE   ROLL   OF  JA\Y.^  —  Continued. 


APRIL. 

MAY. 

JUNE. 

1. 

Fritigil      .     . 

A.  D. 

.     .     400 

1. 

Philip  and  James    . 

A.  D. 

Bible 

1- 

OBERLIN 

A.  B. 

.  1826 

2. 

Theodocia 

.     .     307 

2. 

ATHANASIUS 

373 

2. 

BLANDINA 

.     177 

3. 

Tersteegen 

.     .  1769 

3. 

MONICA  .     .     . 

388 

3. 

Clotilda    .     . 

.     540 

4. 

AMBROSE 

.     .     397 

4. 

Florian     .... 

300 

4. 

Quirinus  . 

.     300 

5. 

Scriver      .     . 

.     .  1693 

5. 

Frederick  the  "Wise 

1525 

5 

BONIFACE 

.     755 

6 

Albert  Diirer 

.     .  1528 

6. 

John  of  Damascus   . 

754 

6. 

Norbert    .     . 

.  1134 

7. 
8. 

PETERSON 

Chemnitz 

.  1552 
.     .  1586 

7 

I  Domatilla  . 

j  Otto      .... 

300 
973 

7. 
8. 

GERHARDT 
FRANCKE 

.  1676 
.  1727 

9. 

Von  Westen 

.     .  1727 

8. 

Stanislaus 

1079 

9. 

COLUMBA 

.     .     597 

10. 

Fulbert     .     . 

.     .  1028 

9. 

Gregory  Nazianz     . 

390 

10. 

Barbarossa     . 

.  1190 

11. 

Leo  the  Great 

.     .     461 

10. 

Heuglin     .... 

1527 

11. 

Barnabas  . 

.  Bible 

12. 

Sabas  .     .     . 

.     .     372 

11. 

John  Arndt    .     .     . 

1621 

12. 

RENATA . 

.  1575 

13. 

JUSTIN    . 

.     .     101 

12. 

Meletius    .... 

381 

13. 

Le  Febvre 

.     .  1702 

14. 

Eccard 

.     .  1611 

13. 

Servatius  .... 

383 

14. 

Basil    .     .     . 

.     .     379 

15. 

Dach    .     .     . 

.     .  1659 

14. 

Pachomius     .     .     . 

348 

15. 

WILBER- 

16. 

WALDO    . 

.     .  1197 

15. 

Moses 

Bible 

FORCE  . 

.  1833 

17. 

MappaJicus    . 

.     .     250 

16. 

Five  Lausanne  Stu- 

16. 

BAXTER . 

.  1691 

18. 

Luther  [at  "Wor 

Qis]    1521 

dents      .... 

1553 

17. 

TAULER . 

.  1361 

19. 

MELANC- 

17. 

Joachim    .... 

1202 

18. 

Pamphilus     . 

.     309 

THON       . 

.     .  1560 

18. 

Martyrs  under  Valens   370 

/ PAPHNU- 

20. 

Bugenhagen  . 

.     .  1558 

19. 

ALCUIN   .     .     . 

804 

19. 

)          TIUS 

.     325 

21. 

ANSELM  . 

.     .  1109 

20. 

Herberger      .     .     . 

1627 

(  Council  of  Nie 

e    .     325 

22. 

ORIGEN  . 

.     .     254 

21. 

Constantine  and  Hel- 

20. 

Martyrs  of  Pragi 

le  .  1621 

f  George,    kille 

r  of 

ena    

337 

21. 

CLAUDIUS 

.     .  1815 

23 

/           Dragons 

.     .     200 

22. 

Castus  and  Emilius 

300 

22. 

Gottschalk      . 

.     .  1066 

(  Adelbert     . 

.     .     997 

23. 

SAVONAROLA 

1498 

23. 

Gottfried  Arnold 

.  1714 

24. 

Wilfrid     .     . 

.     .     709 

24. 

Cazalla      .... 

1559 

24. 

John  the  BaptisI 

.  Bible 

25 

Mark   .     .     . 

.     .  Bible 

25. 

AUSTIN        OP 

25. 

Augsburg     Con 

'es- 

20. 

Trudpert  .     . 

.     .     043 

ENGLAND       . 

008 

sion  .     .     . 

.  1530 

27. 

Catelin       .     . 

.     .  1554 

26. 

BEDE    .... 

735 

26. 

John  Andreii 

.  1654 

28 

Myconius .     . 

.     .  1546 

27. 

CALVIN    .     .     . 

1564 

27. 

Seven  Sleepers 

.     250 

29 

Berquin     .     . 

.     .  1529 

28. 

Laii  franc  .... 

1089 

28. 

IREN^US 

.     202 

30 

Calixt  .     .     . 

.     .  1656 

29. 

ZEISBERGER 

1808 

29. 

Peter  and  Paul 

.  Bible 

30. 

Jerome  of  Prague    . 

1410 

30. 

LuU     .     .     , 

.  1315 

31 

Joachim  Neander    . 

1780 

862 


APPENDIX. 


COMPLETE   EOLL  OF  JAYY.^  —  Continued. 


JULY. 

AUGUST. 

SEPTEMBER. 

1.  Martyrs  at  Brussels 

2.  Mary  [Visitation] 

1  Otto  of  Bamberg 
^-  ]  PALEAKIO 

A.  D. 

1523 
Bible 
1139 
1570 

A.  D. 

1.  Maccabees    .     Apocrjpha 

2.  Martyrs  under  Nero       64 

3.  Thorp 1407 

4.  Kliser 1527 

A.  D. 

1.  Anna Bible 

2.  Mamas     ....     274 

3.  HILDEGARD       1197 

4.  Ida  von  Herzfeld     .     820 

4.  Ulrich  of  Augsburg 

5.  OLDCASTLE 

6.  HUSS    .... 

7.  Willibald       .     .     . 

973 
1418 
1415 

786 

5.  Salzburgers    .     .     . 

6.  Christ  [Transfigura- 

tion]   

7.  Nonna      .... 

1731 

Bible 
374 

5.  MaUio      .     . 

6.  Waibel     .     . 

7.  Spengler  .     . 

8.  Corbinian 

.  1553 
.  1525 
.  1534 
.     730 

8.  Kalian       .... 

689 

8.  Hormisdas     .     .     . 

421 

9.  Paschal    .     . 

.  1560 

9.  Ephraim  of  Syria    .     378 
r  Canute  ....  1036 
10-  \  WILLIAM  OF 
'  ORANGE    .     .  1584 

9.  Numidicus    .     .     .     258 
-^Q    (LAWRENCE        70 

1  Jerusalem  Destroyed 
11.  Gregory  of  Utrecht      775 

10.  Speratus  .     . 

11.  BRENTZ  . 

12.  Peloquiu  .     . 

13.  FAREL     . 

.  1551 
.  1570 
.  1553 
.  1565 

11.  Placidus    .... 

12.  Henry  of  Germany 

630 
1024 

12.  Anselm  of  Havelberg 

13.  ZINZENDORF 

1158 
1760 

j^    (  CYPRIAN 

■  1  Dante    .     . 

.     258 
.  1321 

13.  Eugenius  .... 

505 

14.  GUTHRIE     .     . 

1661 

15.  Grumbach     . 

.  1554 

14.  Bonaventura .     . 

1274 

15.  Mary 

Bible 

16.  Euphemia 

.     311 

15.  Ansver      .... 

1066 

16.  John  the  Wise    .     . 

1532 

17.  Lambert    .     . 

.     709 

16.  ANNE  ASKEW  1546 

17.  Martyrs  of  Scillita   .     200 

17.  Gerhard    .... 

18.  Grotius     .... 

1637 
1645 

18.  Spangenberg . 

19.  Thomas  St.  Pau 

.     .  1792 
.  1551 

18.  Arnulf       .... 

640 

19.  Sebald      .... 

800 

20.  MAGDALEN 

A 

19.  Louisa  Henrietta     . 

1667 

20.  BERNARD    .     . 

1157 

LUTHER 

.  1542 

20.  Marteilhe  .... 

1723 

21.  Moravian  Missions 

1732 

21.  Matthew   .     . 

.  Bible 

21.  Eberhard  .     .     . 

1496 

22.  Symphorianus     .     . 

180 

22.  Mauritius 

.     302 

22.  Mary  Magdalene     .  Bible 

23.  Gottfried  of  Hamelle  1552 

23.  COLIGNY     .     . 

24.  Bartholomew      .     . 

1572 
Bible 

23.  LABORIE   [I 
Martyrs] 

Ive 
.  1555 

24.  THOMAS       A 

25.  LOUIS  .... 

1270 

24.  Moser  .     .     . 

1785 

KEMPIS       .     . 

25.  James 

26.  Christopher 

27.  Palmarius      .     .     . 

1471 
Bible 

1200 

26.  ULFILAS      .     . 

27.  Jovinian    .... 

28.  AUGUSTINE    . 

29.  John    Baptist     Be- 

388 
400 
430 

( RABAUT 
2^-  ]  Peace  of  Augsb 

26.  Lioba  .... 

27.  Graveron  .     . 

1795 

urg  1555 

779 

1557 

28.  Bach 

29.  Olaf 

1750 
1030 

headed    .... 
30.  CLAUDIUS  .     . 

Bible 
839 

28.  Cologne  Martyrs 

29.  Michael    .     .     . 

.  1529 
.  Bible 

30.  WESSEL  .     . 

31.  Schade      .... 

1489 
1698 

31.  AIDAN      .     .     . 

651 

30.  JEROME  .     . 

.    420 

APPENDIX. 


863 


COMPLETE   EOLL   OF  UY^^  — Continued. 


OCTOBER. 

NOVEMBER. 

DECEMBER. 

1.  BEMY  .... 

A.  D. 

545 

1.  All  Saints 

A.  D. 

1.  Eligius     .     . 

A.  D. 

.     659 

2.  Schmid     .     .     . 

15G4 

2.  Victorinus     .     .     . 

304 

2.  Euysbroeck    . 

.     .  1381 

3.  Ewalds     .... 

695 

3.  Pirmin      .... 

753 

3.  Groot  .     .     . 

.     .  1384 

4.  Francis     .... 

1226 

4.  BENGEL  .     .     . 

1752 

4.  Gerhard  of  Ziitphen    1398 

5.  Carnesecchi   .     . 

1507 

5.  EGEDE      .     .     . 

1751 

5.  Crispina   .     . 

.     .     304 

6.  Henry  Albert     .     . 

1651 

6.  GUSTAVUS 

6.  Nicolas  of  Myra 

.     400 

7.  BEZA    .     .     . 

1605 

ADOLPHUS     . 

1632 

(  Odontius    . 
■^•■JHiller    .     . 

.  1605 

8.  Grosthead      .     .     . 

1253 

7.  Willibrord     .     .     . 

739 

.  1769 

9.  Dionysius      .     .     . 

Bible 

8.  Willehad  .... 

789 

8.  Rinkard    .     . 

.  1649 

10.  Jonas  .... 

1555 

9.  Staupitz  .... 

1524 

9.  Schmolck  .     . 

.  1737 

11.  ZWINGLE    . 

1531 

10.  LUTHER  .     .     . 

1546 

10.  Eber    .     .     . 

.  1569 

12.  BuUiiiger  .... 

1575 

11.  Martin  of  Tours 

400 

11.  Henry  of  Ziitphen       1524 

13.  ELIZ.  FRY    . 

1845 

12.  Von  Mornay       .     . 

1623 

i  SPIBIDION    .     325 

14.  BIDLEY  .     .     . 

1555 

13.  Arcadius  .... 

437 

12-  -j  Vicelin       . 

.  1154 

15.  Amelia    .... 

500 

14.  Vermigli  .... 

1562 

,  Odilia    .     . 
13-  j  Berthold     . 

.     720 

16.  GALL   .... 

635 

15.  Keppler    .... 

1630 

.  1272 

17.  Edict      of     Nantes 

16.  Creuziger       .     .     . 

1548 

14.  Dioscurus 

.     250 

[revoked]     .     . 

1685 

17.  Bernward       .     .     . 

1022 

15.  Christiana      . 

.     330 

18.  Luke 

Bible 

18.  Gregory  of  Armenia 

331 

16.  Adelheid  .     . 

.     999 

19.  Bruno  of  Cologne     . 

965 

19.  Elizabeth  of  Hesse 

1231 

17.  Sturm       .     . 

.     779 

20.  Lambert    .     .     . 

1530 

20.  JOHN"     WILL- 

18. Seckendorf     . 

.     .  1692 

21.  Hilary  the  Hermit    . 

372 

IAMS        .     .     . 

1839 

19.  Clement  of  Egyp 

t    .     220 

22.  Hedwig     .     .     . 

1243 

21.  COLUMBAN     . 

615 

20.  Abraham 

.  Bible 

23.  HENRY  MAR- 

22.  CECOLAMPA- 

21.  Thomas    .     . 

.  Bible 

TYN    .... 

1812 

DIUS    .... 

1531 

22.  MACKAIL 

.  1666 

/  Arethas      .     .     . 

522 

23.  CLEMENT   .     . 

100 

23.  Du  Bourg      . 

.     .  1559 

24.  \  Peace  of  Westpha- 

24.  JOHN  KNOX 

1572 

24.  Adam,  Eve   . 

.  Bible 

(      lia     .     .     .     . 

1648 

25.  Catharine  of  Egypt 

306 

25.  Christmas 

.  Bible 

25.  John  Hess     .     .     . 

1547 

26.  Conrad  of  Constanz 

976 

26.  Stephen    .     . 

.  Bible 

26.  Frederick  the  Elector  1576 

27.  Margaret  Blaarer     . 

1541 

27.  John    .     .     . 

.  Bible 

27.  Frumentius    .     .     . 

356 

28.  BOUSSEL      .     . 

1728 

28.  Innocents 

.  Bible 

28.  Simon  and  Jude 

Bible 

29.  Saturninus    .     .     . 

250 

29.  David  .     .     . 

.  Bible 

29.  ALFBED   THE 

30.  Andrew     .... 

Bible 

30.  Christopher  [Du 

ke]    1568 

GREAT   .     .     . 

900 

31.  JOHN  WICI 

IF  1384 

30.  Sturm       .     .     . 

1553 

31.  Luther's  Theses . 

1517 

864 


APPENDIX. 


III. 


STATISTICS   OF   OUR   CHURCH  UNIVERSAL 

BY    DENOmNATIONS    AND    COUNTKIES,    SHOWING,    FOB,    THE    WHOLE    EARTH,    THE 
NUMBER  OF  CONGREGATIONS   PROFESSING  THE  CHRISTIAN  NAME. 


AMERICA,  OCEANICA,  AND 

AFRICA 

United 
States. 

Canada. 

Other  lands 
of  N.  A. 

South 
America. 

Oceanica. 

Africa. 

1.  Lutheran      .    . 

2.  Reformed  (German)  . 

3.  Reformed  (Dutch)      . 

4.  Presbyterian     .     .     . 

5.  Presbyterian,  United 

6.  Presbyterian,  Cumb. 

3,883 

1,347 

506 

7,157 

783 

1,872 

2,980 

tl4,954 

tl8,304 

t2,010 

S,.333 

1,354 

1,442 

2,000 

1,000 

140 
t733 

t546 
710 

t267 
1,385 
t90 
t50 
130 

tioo 

100 

t25 

no 

166 

tl9 
8 

398 

200 
135 

t301 
100 

j     112 

207 
20 

50 

8.  Baptist 

9.  Methodist  Episcopal  . 

10.  Methodist     .... 

11.  Congregational      .     . 

12.  Evangelical  Association 

13.  United  Brethren    .     . 

14.  Disciples 

All  others     .... 

64 

100 
1000 

UNREFORMED  ORGANIZATIONS. 

1   Roman  Catholic    .     .     . 

6,920 

tl,012 

*5,000 

*8,000 

_ 

_ 

2.  Greek  Catholic 

2 

- 

- 

- 

- 

— 

3.  Old  Catholic      . 

- 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

4.  Armenian     .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

5.  Nestorian      .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

6.  Jacobite   .     .     . 

_ 

- 

_ 

_ 

_ 

- 

7.  Copt     .... 

8.  Abyssinian   .     . 

~ 

- 

- 

- 

~ 

\  *3,000 

EUROPE. 


England 

and 
Wales. 

Scotland. 

Ireland. 

Holland 

and 
Belgium. 

Denmark, 

Norway, 

and 
Sv?eden. 

Russia. 

1    Lutheran 

2.  Reformed  (German)  .     . 

3.  Reformed  (Dutch)      .     . 

4.  Presbyterian     .... 

5.  Pi'esbyterian,  United 

6.  Presbyterian,  Cumb. 

7.  Episcopal 

8.  Baptist 

9.  Methodist  Episcopal  .     . 

10.  Methodist 

11.  Congregational      .     .     . 

12.  Evangelical  Association. 

13.  United  Brethren    .     .     . 

14.  Discii)les 

All  others 

1,356 

4,000 
2,501 

5,238 
3,069 

437 

_ 

2,555 

626 

_ 

134 

90 

82 
192 

601 

400 
29 

1208 
30 

*320 
*1,700 

*115 
11 

10 

*7,754 
3 

289 

*2,000 
'40 

9 

UNREFORMED  ORGANIZATIONS. 

1.  Roman  Catholic    .     .     . 

»1,261 

117 

3,600 

*6,378 

*3 

*6,700 

2.  Greek  Catholic 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

*55,000 

3.  Old  Catholic      . 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

4.  Armenian     .     . 

_ 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

170 

5.  Nestorian      .     . 

_ 

_ 

_ 

- 

- 

- 

6.  Jacobite  .     .     . 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

7.  Copt     .... 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

8.  Abyssinian  .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

The  t  denotes  number  of  pastors,  instead  of  number  of  congregations. 

The  *  denotes  number  of  congregations  estimated  one  for  every  thousand  of  population. 


APPENDIX. 

EUROPE  ( Continued). 


865 


Lutheran 

Reformed  (German)  .     . 
Reformed  (French)    .     . 
Presbyteriaa      .     .     .     . 
Presbyterian,  United 
Presbyterian,  Cumb. 

Episcopal 

Baptist 

Methodist  Episcopal  .     . 

Methodist 

Congregational  .  .  . 
Evangelical  Association 
United  Brethren   .     .     . 

Disciples  

All  others 


Austria. 


*1,250 
2,075 


Italy. 


56 


20 


Switzerland   Germany, 


•1,000 
*oOO 


1 1 19,700 ) 
)      230) 


450 


12 


Other 
Lands. 


12 


12 


UNREFORMED  ORGANIZATIONS. 


1.  Roman  Catholic 

*27,904 

*26,725 

*1,085 

12,000 

*38,500 

21,309 

2.  Greek  Catholic 

*3,053 

*5 

_ 

5 

- 

12,022 

3.  Old  Catholic     . 

- 

- 

- 

121 

- 

2,000 

4.  Armenian     .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

5.  Nestorian      .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

6.  Jacobite  .     .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

7.  Copt     .... 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

8.  Abyssinian   .     . 

1 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

ASIA, 


Lutheran 

Reformed  (German)  .     . 
Reformed  (Dutch  &Fr"ch) 
Presbyterian      .... 
Presbyterian,  United 
Presbyterian,  Cumb. 

Episcopal 

Baptist 

Methodist  Episcopal  .     . 

Methodist 

Congregational  .  .  . 
Eyangelical  Association. 
United  Brethren    .     .     . 

Disciples 

All  others 


West  Asia 

and 

Persia. 


27 


India, 
Burmah, 

China. 

Japan. 

Rest  of 
Asia. 

and  Siam. 

68 

15 

18 

_ 

_ 

10 

7 

13 

_ 

80 

45 

5 

_ 

10 

3 

8 

- 

526 

20 

2 

27 

43 

(51/ 

5 

- 

40 

30 

_ 

_ 

75 

50 

- 

~ 

- 

- 

- 

- 

35,425 
2,722 
3,384 

15,362 
1,359 
1,872 
7,360 

17,968 

18,665 
9,299 
7,984 
1,383 
1,472 
2,537 

*2,000 

Grand  Total        128,452 


Total. 


UNREFORMED  ORGANIZATIONS. 


1.  Roman  Catholic 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

_ 

*201,000 

2.  Greek  Catholic 

- 

_ 

_ 

- 

- 

»71,000 

3.  Old  Catholic      . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

121 

4.  Armenian     .     . 

*30 

- 

- 

- 

- 

*12,022 

5.  Nestorian      .     . 

»165 

- 

- 

- 

- 

*165 

6.  Jacobite   .     .     . 

200 

- 

- 

- 

*200 

7.  Copt     .... 

8.  Abyssinian  .     . 

- 

- 

- 

- 

~ 

j  *3,000 

1  Of  these,  all  but  1,500  are  "  Evangelical,"  and  include  both  Lutheran  and  Reformed. 

The  *  denotes  number  of  congregations  estimated  one  for  every  thousand  of  population. 

The  above  Table  of  Statistics  of  the  church  throughout  the  earth  by  denominations  and  congre- 
gations has  been  constructed  (no  similar  table  being  known)  on  the  latest  denominational  reports  at 
hand,  or  upon  the  statements  of  cyclopaedias.  It  of  necessity  is  very  imperfect,  yet  may  serve  to 
show  in  what  lands  each  denomination  prevails,  and  also  to  indicate  the  slight  degree  in  which  some^ 
portions  of  the  globe  have  been  possessed  by  the  church.  Possibly  it  may  serve  beside  to  suggest  to 
some  student  cf  statistics  the  preparation  of  a  like  table  of  greater  fullness  and  accuracy.  — H.  M.  M: 


866 


APPENDIX. 


IV. 


INDEX  OF  ONE  THOUSAND  BIOGRAPHICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS,  FOR 
THE  USE  OF  THE  PREACHER  AND  OF  THE  TEACHER  IN  THE 
SABBATH-SCHOOL. 

NOTE  FOR  THE  ASSISTANCE  OF  THOSE  HAVING  THIS  WORK  IN  THREE  PARTS. 

All  references  to  pages  1-264  are  to  Part  First.  — Earlier  Leaders. 
All  references  to  pages  265-540  are  to  Part  Second.  —  Later  Leaders  —  Europe. 
All  references  to  pages  541-856  are  to  Part  Third.  —  Later  Leaders  —  America,  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Oceanica. 


Absent-Mindedness,  215. 

Absolution,  248. 

Adaptiveness,  189,  538. 

Adventures,  299,  331. 

Adveesitt,  147.     (See  Trials.) 

Affliction,  307.     (See  Trials.) 

Ajvibition,  81,  432. 

Angels,  277. 

Anger,  583. 

Anti-Popery,  38, 131, 158, 161, 166, 198, 

220,  221,  225,  241,  248,  253,  266,  285, 

298,  720. 
Antislavery,  529,  530,  559,  561,  724, 

743,  768. 
Apostles,  3,  14,  15. 

Asceticism,  8,  57,  202.     (See  Monkery.) 
Authorship,    26,    111,    146,   189,   215. 

(See  Books.) 

B. 

Backsliding,  102. 

Baptism,  103,  275. 

Beauty,  432,  481. 

Benediction,  121,  124,  194. 

Bereavement,  275,  278,  319. 

Bible,  13,  2.3,  73, 156, 159,  165,  175,  182, 
204,  210,  218,  243,  244,  253,  260,  266, 
268,  280,  310,  324,  327,  382,  383,  388, 
400,  410,  462,  466,  816,  823,  844. 

Bible  Study,  25,  95,  97,  204,  235,  237, 
293,  470. 

Blessedness,  198. 

Books,  136,  152,  191,  216,  225,  227,  253, 


272,  282,  293,  294,  305,  343,  357,  373, 
415,  458,  513,  522,  528,  555,  829. 

Boyhood,  170. 

Brothers,  195,  517,  523. 

Brotherhood,  604,  656. 

Bravery,  126,  254,  267,  268,  271. 

Burials,  278,  300,  341,  421,  446,  533, 
607,  631,  787. 

Business,  229,  466. 


Call  to  Life  Work,  292. 

Call  to  the  Ministry,  87,  109,  170, 

176,  186,  195,  603,  663,  731. 
Cards,  262,  475. 
Catechism,  269,  294,  297,  301,  303,  304, 

305,  450,  463,  512,  567,  588. 
Celibacy,  57,  325. 
Charity,   120,  124,   125,  151,  179,  196, 

464,  528,  534,  537,  538,  539,  597,  748. 
Chastity,  71. 
Cheerfulness,  296. 
Childhood,  63,  86. 
Childlikeness,  272. 
Children,  276,  277,  494. 
Christian  Communion,  20. 
Christian  Love,  199. 
Christmas,  98. 
Christ's  Person,  1,  3,  6,  31,  64,  98,  154, 

158,  191,  200,  374,473. 
Christ's  Righteousness,  197. 
Christ's  Work,  6,  98. 
Church  and  State,  145,  156,  171,  174, 

190,  192,  241,  249,  256,  260,  268,  286, 


APPENDIX. 


867 


288,  307,  311,  319,  355,  381,390,417, 

422,  424,  444,  499,  501,  545,  741,  785, 

717. 
Church  Corruption,  210,  211,  250,  519, 

553,  650. 
Church  Creeds,  284,  299,  302,  310,  382, 

385,  389,  440,  443,  476. 
Church  Disputes,  27,  65,  75,  110,  154, 

220,  223,  283,  285,  288,  313,  442,  457, 

641. 
Church  Government,  173,192, 306, 311, 

318,  339,  416,  429,  471,  478,  483,  521, 

522,  569,  570,  606,  653,  774. 
Church  Unity,  35,  42,  166,  238,  289, 

334,  343,  459,  471,  513,  521,  573,  589, 

597. 
Civilization,   163,   167,  345,  368,  496, 

497,  541,  547,  567. 
Commentaries,  159,  470,  770. 
Compromise,  286. 
Confessing    Christ,   54,   60,   72,  248, 

271,  285,  351,  358,  376,  387,  396,  408, 

409,  485. 
Confessing  Sins,  1 12, 248,  257,  264,  395. 
Conflict,  239,  415. 
Conscientiousness,  444. 
Consecration,  94,  202,  219,  266,  292, 

338,  364,  462,  494,  510,  518,  527,  533, 

557,  601,  784. 
Consolation,  28,  225. 
Conversion,  11,  40,  102,  108,  114,  176, 

195,  266,  327,  509,  519,  534,  615,  670. 
Courage,  51,  68,  149,  164,  254,  267,  271, 

314,  324,  366,  370,  396,  401,  405,  406, 

417,  418,  454,  495,  498,  503. 
Courtesy,  272. 
Covetousness,  16. 
Crosses,  160. 

D. 

Deacons,  46. 

Death,  125,  206,  232,  245,  276,  290,  300, 

308,  315,  319,  334,  362,  439,  460,  546, 

582,  802. 
Devotedness,  577,  589,  595,  600,  683, 

797,  804. 
Diligence,  146,  336,  674. 
Discipline,  91,  157,  318,  333,  552. 
Dishonesty,  62. 
Distress,  197. 
Doubt,  474,  510. 
Dream,  277. 
Dbinking,  716. 


Dying  Courage,  55. 

Dying  Testimonies,  21,  56,  85,  92,  103, 
113,  121,  138,  180,  193,  200,206,2-39, 
249,  258,  264,  270,  314,  320,  340,  341, 
351,  367,  378,  387,  394,  397,  420,  446, 
472,  482,  490,  504,  507,  508,  516,  524, 
533,  606,  630,  685,  749,  847. 


E. 

Egotism,  8. 

Eloquence,  82,  88. 

Episcopacy,  8. 

Evangelists,  11,  169,  624. 

Exile,  592. 

Exposition  op  the  Bible,  310. 


F. 

Eaith,  7,  165,  204,  236,  270,   277,  474, 

506,  507,  518,  825. 
Faithfulness,  69,  80,  228,  229,  268,  273, 

306,  361,  461,  480,  492,  514,  529,  553. 
Fasting,  61. 
Fathers  and  Children,  23,  53,  76,  86, 

142,  204,  206,  265,  276,  277,  297,  298, 

308,  315,  321. 
Fearlessness,  83. 
Fellowship,  19. 
Firmness,  273. 
Fleeing  Evil,  18. 
Foreign  Missionaries,  163,  166,  169, 

176,474.     (^e  Missions.) 
Frankness,  234,  237,  255,  261,  270,  330, 

417. 
Freewill,  342,  556. 
Friendship,  227, 257,  281,  287,  333,  339, 

396,  413. 

G. 

Gentleness,  458. 
God,  162,  200,  549,  563. 
Good  Works,  246,  270. 
Grief,  278. 


H. 

Habits,  390,  523,  582,  583. 
Heaven,  195,  508. 
Holy  Spirit,  183,  184,  191,  271. 
Home,  180,  275,  279,  440,  523,  529,  536. 
Home  Missions,  196,  328. 
Honesty,  270. 


868 


APPENDIX. 


Humility,  118,  125,  226,237,  271,272, 

281,  465,  555. 
Husbands,  100,  203,  269,  347,  348. 
Hymns,  90,  440,  446,  447,  448,  471,  523. 
Hypoceisy,  366,  542,  561. 

I. 

Idolatry,  438. 

Image,  155,  158,  160,  426. 

Incarnation,  191. 

Independence,  179,  479. 

Industry,  110,  120,  135,  179,  188,  194, 

196,  215,  229,  235,  240,  291,  322,  437, 

544. 
Influence,  233,  259,  264,  468,  523,  524, 

531,  540. 
Introspection,  196. 
Intolerance,  199,  566. 

J. 

Jesting,  296. 
Joy,  395,  447,  808. 
Justice,  205. 
Justification,  281,  327. 


K. 

Kingdom  of  God,  150. 
Kingliness,  129,  201,  207,  212,  215,  324, 
500. 


Labors,  596,  620. 

Last  Will,  147. 

Law  and  Gospel,  259. 

Laws  op  Moses,  145,  159. 

Lay  Work,  220,  224,  243,  246,  247,  291, 

294. 
Learning,  279,  294. 

iLEGENDS,  140. 

Letters,  459. 

Letter- Writing,  276,  277. 

.Lewd  Books,  262. 

Liberty,  59,  302,  428,  430,  526,  563,  575, 

578,  579. 
Libraries,  293,  309. 
Licentiousness,  96,  105,  107. 
Life,  Love  of,  193. 
Literature,  296. 

Longing  for  Heaven,  290,  411,  420. 
Lord's  Prayer,  239. 


Lord's  Supper,  244,  283,  289,  297,  305, 
311,  313,  319,  332,  342,357,359,392, 
402,  443,  451,  477. 

Loss  OF  Children,  275. 

Love,  7,  166,  273,  277,  467,  476,  563. 

Love  to  God,  200,  204,  236,  237,  473. 

M. 

Magnanimity,  387,  390,  457,  554. 

Marriage,  269,  275,  291,  307,  339,  354, 
406,  433,  447,  459,  476,  481,  487,  496, 
523,  535,  550,  621,  742. 

Martyrs,  2,  5,  13,  20,  45,  48,  52,  55,  74, 
175,  178,  258,  378,  407,  409,412,413, 
488,  490,  504,  841,  843,  856. 

Mass,  401,  417. 

Meditation,  194,  231. 

Meekness,  214. 

Memory,  17. 

Metaphysics,  222. 

Miracles,  456. 

Missionary  Ship,  177,  545,  565. 

Missionary  Spirit,  206,  217. 

Missions,  117,  123,  127,  128,  149,  163, 
166,  169,  171,  175,  \J,\,  182,208,217, 
218,  466,  467,  478,  479,  515,  538,  .5.54, 
562,  566,  571,  575,  586,  594,  747,  838. 

Money,  290,  341. 

Monkery,  57,  67,  78,  96,  97,  105,  115, 
214,  241,  251,  265. 

Morality,  12,  294,  490,  527. 

Mothers,  and  Mother's  Influence, 
23,  53,76,  86,  101,  142,  186,  194,  203, 
213,  214,  227,  251,  297,  301,  315,  321, 
485,  517,  533,  574,  577,  600. 

Motives,  151. 

Mourning,  278,  294. 

Munificence,  26,  43,  89,  301. 

Music,  3,  90. 

Mysticism,  223. 

N. 

Names,  363. 

Nature,  30,  195,  335,  542,  549,  550. 

Noted  Sermons,  168. 

0. 

Old  Age,  288,  290,  296,  334,  532,  598, 

629,  740,  836. 
Organizing  Talent,  196,  219. 


APPENDIX. 


869 


Orphans,  464. 
overwokk,  197. 


P. 


Paganism,  10,  71,  853. 

Paintings,  99,  262. 

Pantheism,  216. 

Parents  and  Children,  201,  203,  204, 
206,  207,  265,  274,  276,  279,  319,  320, 
327,  337,  339,  349,  352,  365,  372,  379, 
380,  435,  445,  472,  473,  489,  491,  500, 
509,  513,  524,  533,  547,  551,  593,  744, 
854. 

Pastors,  145,  243,  360,  450,  455,  484, 
493,  500,  512,  576,  587,  739. 

Patience.     (See  Affliction.) 

Patriotism,  89,  144,  241,  274,  295,  297, 
309,  418,  487,  498,  502,  526,  579,  580, 
590,  613. 

Penitence,  175. 

Persecution,  178,  222,  245,  247,  249, 
252,  262,  263,  298,  307,  328,  344,  346, 
37r,  386,  391,  395,  399,  403,  423,  427, 
480,  483,  486,  490,  503,  505,  519,  591, 
608,  809. 

Philanthropy,  492,  560-562. 

Piety,  469,  509,  550. 

Pilgrimage,  161. 

Plain  Speaking,  61. 

POETET,  292. 

Poor,  48. 

Popery,  38,  156,  248,  261,  393,  412. 

Prayer,  119,  178,  197,  215,  231,  248, 
249,  257,  267,  297,  359,  361,  396,  408, 
436,  451,  461,  476,  480,  546,  548,  588, 
846. 

Prayer  Answered,  108,  113,  269. 

Preaching,  78,  119,  123,  137,  215,  220, 
223,  224,  243,  251,  260,  269,  299,  309, 
316,  318,  322,  330,  336,  387,410,414, 
418,  420,  442,  451,  463,  488,  493,  495, 
514,  518,  546,  548,  588,  605,  745. 

Predestination,  289,  599. 

Presentiments,  87. 

Prophecy,  12,  178,  262,  471. 

Purity,  296. 

R. 

Reason  and  Faith,  284. 
Rebuking  Sins,  252,  261,  333,  358,  360, 
419,454.494,552,  560. 


Reform,  193,  221,  243,  245,  250,  251, 
253,  260,  262,  270,  279,  298,312,316, 
318,  322,  324,  330,  332,  339,  384,  416, 
425. 

Relic  Seeking,  181. 

Religious  Debates,  154. 

Renown,  226,  832. 

Resignation,  257,  263,  277,  278. 

Rest,  167,  174,  193,  598. 

Restfulness,  189,  193,  231. 

Revenge,  149. 

Revival,  411,  452,  453,  477,  548,  551, 
572,  585,  588,  602,  604,  609,  733-735, 
744. 

Ritualism,  150,  398. 

Romance,  32. 

S. 

Sabbath,  536. 

Sabbath-Schools,  88,  528,  769. 

Sabbath  Study,  93,  316,  320. 

Sacraments,  244,  283,  289,  383. 

Saint  Worship,  297. 

Saving  Faith,  237. 

Schools,  105,   116,  134,  146,  153,   155, 

168,  174,  177,  187,  206,  208,  234,  280, 

292,  303,  309,  319,  356,  465,  493,  572, 

576,  610. 
Science  and  Religion,  146,  187,  199, 

216. 
Scriptures,   155,    159,    165,    17.5,   179, 

182. 
Self-Conquest,  146,  165,  203,  231. 
Self-Devotion,  9,  195,  202,  259,  266, 

445,  475,  517. 
Self-Inspection,  196,  510. 
Selfish  Motives,  151. 
Self-Will,  197. 
Separation,  452,  543,  545. 
Sermons,  168. 
Servants,  99. 
Shepherds,  59. 
Sin,  84,  204,  256,  564. 
Slanders,  66,  288. 
Social  Life,  458. 
Song,  292,  293. 
Soul,  181,  550. 
State  and  Church.     (See  Church  and 

State.) 
Strange  Providences,  299,  800. 
Strange  Superstitions,  263,  266,  327. 
Subduing  Self,  165,  220,  233,  279. 
Suffering  fob  Christ,  164,  617. 


870 


APPENDIX. 


SUPEENATURAL,  ThE,  198. 

Superstition,  172. 
Swearing,  299. 
Sympathy,  591,  596. 


Talents,  4.33. 

Teaching,  155,  188,  353,  464,  465,  472, 

578,  587. 
Temperance,  24,  716,  768. 
Thankfulness,  83,  92,  147. 
Theological  Seminaries,  303. 
Theology,  282,  708,  714,  738. 
Thirst  for  Truth,  236,  238,  322. 
Toleration,  491. 
Tombs,  326. 
Torture,  50,  506. 
Tradition,  36. 

Transubstantiation,  244,  402. 
Travel,  96,  301,  449. 
Trials,  230,  258,  265,  269,  271,  283,  287, 

315,  347,  351,  375,  411,  445,  463,  510, 

511,  530,  .532,  786. 
Tribulation,  230,  254,  255,  287,  307, 

325. 
Trust    in    God,    163,    350,    435,    446, 

462. 

TUENING-POINTS    IN    LiFE,  164,  167. 

u. 

Unfaithfulness,  106,  210. 


Visions,  176,  209,  210,  456,  499, 508,  538. 
Vows,  150. 

W. 

War,  428,  434,  436. 

Wat  of  Life,  221,  223,  236,  238,  375, 

519. 
Weakness,  288. 
Widows,  100. 
Wills,     (^ee  Last  Will.) 
Wisdom,  155,  235,  419,  497,  537. 
Wise  Counsels,  123,  130,  205,  212. 
Wives,  100,  275. 
Woman's  Work,  124,  172,  208,  212,  213, 

234,  265,  276,  369,  370,  371,  400,  401, 

489,  747. 
Women   Missionaries  and  Leaders, 

122,  172,  178. 
Works,  165. 
worldliness,  40,  79. 
Worship,  297,  611. 

Y. 

Youth,  77,  142,  153,  188,  234,  259,  265, 
297,  280,  301,  308,  337,  423,  431,  441, 
449,  469,  473,  526,  548. 


Zeal,  172,  202,  329,  333,  404,  475. 


INDEX 


NOTE   FOR  THE  ASSISTANCE   OF   THOSE   HAVING   THIS   WORK   IN   THREE   PARTS. 

All  references  to  pp.  1-264  are  to  Part  First.  —  Earlier  Leaders. 

All  references  to  pp.  265-540  are  to  Part  Second.  —  Later  Leaders  —  Europe. 

All  references  to  pp.  541-856  are  to  Part  Third.  —  Later  Leaders  —  America,  Africa,  and  Oceanica. 


A. 

A  Keiupis,  226-234,  517. 
Abelard,  200. 
Adamnan,  116,  117. 
Adeodatus,  103. 
Africa,  Church  of,  563. 
Aidan,  122-126. 
Albigenses,  201. 
Albret,  Joanna,  357,  358. 
Albright,  657-661. 
Alcuin,  152. 
Alesius,  404. 
Aleth,  195. 
Alexander,  749-759. 
Alexandria  (see  Egypt). 
Alfred,  141. 
Alypius,  107. 
Ambrose,  47,  85-93,  189. 
America,.  Church  of,  541, 

etc. 
America,  Indians  of,  788- 

796. 
American  Board,  839. 
Aniicletus,  30. 
Anderson,  322-325. 
Anglo-Saxons,  142-148. 
Anicet,  19. 

Anne  Bolevn,  379-382. 
Anselm,  18"6. 
Ansgar,  176. 
Antichrist,  35. 
Antioch  (see  Syria). 
Antony,  67. 
Apostles,  1,  3. 
Apostles'  Creed,  6. 
Aquinas,  213. 
Arians,  69,  87, 102. 
Arius,  64-66. 
Arndt,  449,  461. 
Asbury,  614-623. 
Asia  Minor,  Church  of,  14- 

22. 
Askew,  Anne,  400-403. 
Asser,  146. 
Associate,  741. 
Associate  Reformed,  741. 
Athanasian  Creed,  70. 
Athanasius,  62-70,  86. 


Augsburg  Confession,  285. 
Augustine,  46,  47,  56,  105- 

113,  162. 
Austin,  126-133. 


B. 

Baptists,  608-614,  677-697, 
837-849. 

Barbarossa,  212. 

Barnes,  768-773. 

Basil,  88,  105. 

Basilicas,  84. 

Bataille,  346-352. 

Baxter,  508-516. 

Bede,  133-141. 

Beecher,  711-730. 

Bengel,  468-472. 

Bernard,  194-201,  209. 

Beza,  352-362,  366. 

Blandina,  49-52. 

Boethius,  146. 

Bohme,  457. 

Boniface,  140,  166-175. 

Bora,  Catharine,  269,  271. 

Bowes,  Margery,  415. 

Brainerd,  571. 

Brentz,  297-300,  316. 

Brethren  of  the  Common 
Life,  226,  227,  234. 

Brethren  of  the  Free  Spir- 
it, 225. 

Brewster,  541-546. 

Bricjonnet,  328. 

Britain,  Church  of,  114- 
148,  186-194,239-249. 

Brunehilde,  165. 

Bucer,  297,  338,  384. 

BuUinger,  302,  314. 

Biires,  Idelette  de,  339. 

Burmah,  837-849. 


Calvin,  298,  332,  333,  335- 

345,  348,  354,  370. 
Campbell,  668-677. 


Cauustein,  467,  476. 

Capito,  316. 

Cecelius,  40. 

Charles  Fifth,  288,  295. 

Charles  Martel,  169,  174. 

Charles  the  Great,  153, 156. 

China,  Church  of,  217-219, 

819-837. 
Chrysostoin,  76-85. 
Ciaran,  1 1 7. 
Cistercians,  195. 
Claudius,  157-162. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  23. 
Clement  of  Rome,  29-32, 

183. 
Clotilda,  150. 
Clovis,  149. 
Coliguy,  358,  362^67. 
Colman,  125. 
Columba,  116-122. 
Columban,  163-166. 
Comgall,  163,  166. 
Congregationalists,      541- 

565,  609,  703-740. 
Constantine,  59,  63,  66,  73. 
Constantinople,  Council  of, 

75. 
Constantius,  66. 
Cotta,  265. 
Councils  of  Nice,  57,  58, 60, 

76. 
Covenanters,  741. 
Cranmer,  379-388,  415. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  512. 
Cuthbert,  138,  139. 
Cynics,  13. 
Cyprian,  39-45. 
Cyril,  181. 


D. 

Damasis,  95. 
Dante,  250,  370. 
Davies,  574. 
Dickinson,  569-574. 
Didymus,  96. 
Disciples,  668-676. 
Docetes,  6. 


872 


INDEX. 


Dominicans,  214. 
Donatus,  104,  110,  111. 
Donnell,  661-668. 
Druids,  11.5. 
Dwight,  703-710. 


E. 

Easter,  19. 

Edward  Sixth,  389,  415. 

Edwards,  547-557,  703. 

Edwin,  122. 

Egede,  479,  783-788. 

Egypt,   Church   of,  22-29, 

57-59,  62-70. 
Eliot,  John,  513,  546. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  415. 
England  (see  Britain). 
Epiphanius,  81. 
Episcopalians,     647-657, 

814-819. 
Erasmus,  279,  328,  342. 
Erastus,  306. 
Ethelbert,  128,129. 
Eudoxia,  81,  82. 
Eusebius  of  Cesarea,  1,  49, 

65. 
Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  65, 

67. 
Eustochium,  96. 
Evangelical     Association, 

657-661. 


F. 

Farel,  326-335,  .338. 

Felicitas,  52-56. 

Finnev,  730-740. 

Fisk,  Wilbur,  631-639. 

Florentius,  226. 

Fox,  405. 

France,  Church  of,  148-157, 

194-208,    326-367,    482- 

508. 
Franciscans,  214. 
Francke,  461-468,  585,  586. 
Frederick   the   Wise,   268, 

275. 
Friends,  534-540,  559. 
Fry,  533-540. 
Fuller,  697-703. 


G. 

Gall,  166,  169. 

Gaul,  Church  of,  32-39,  49- 

52. 
Gerhardt,  375,  439-448. 
Germany,  Church  of,  163- 

175,    208-213,    222-339, 

265-320,  439-488. 


Gnostics,  2,  5,  18,  34,  35. 
Goths,  70,  76,  112. 
Graham,  740-749. 
Greenland,  783-788. 
Gregory  of  Cesarea,  27. 
Gregory  of  Nazianz,  95. 
Gregory  of  Rome,  127, 128, 

146. 
Groot,  220. 
Gurney  (see  Fry). 
Gustavus   Adolphus,   431- 

439. 
Gustavus  Vasa,  323. 
Guthrie,  501-505. 


H. 

Hamilton,  403-410,  413. 
Hegesij)pus,  1. 
Henry,  8,  379,  388. 
Henry    of    Navarre,    360, 

366. 
Hilary,  68. 
Hilda,  124. 
Hildegard,  208-213. 
Hodge,  Charles,  761-766. 
Holland,  Church  of,  429. 
Hooper,  397-400. 
Hopkins,  557-565. 
Hosius,  68. 
Huguenots,  363-367. 
Huss,  250-259. 


Ignatius,  3-10. 

India  Missions,  796-803. 

Irenteus,  32-39,  49. 

Italy,  Church  of,  29-32,  85- 

93,157,213-217,219-222, 

259-264,  368-379. 


J. 

Jerome,  93-99. 

Jerusalem,  1. 

Jesuits,  429. 

John  of  Milic,  250. 

John    of   Monte    Corvino, 

217-219. 
John  the  Constant,  275. 
Judson,  837-849. 
Julian,  63,  69. 
Justin,  10-14. 


K. 

Kentigern,  119. 
Knox,  411,  413-421. 
Kurtz,  589. 


Laborie,  346-352. 
Lambert,  405,  409. 
Laiifranc,  186. 
Laski,  304,  384. 
Latimer,  386,  389,396,  397, 

402. 
Lawrence,  46-49. 
Lefevre,  327,  328,  380. 
Leo  First,  46. 
Leo  Tenth,  267. 
Linus,  30. 

Livingston,  639-647. 
Lome,  116. 
Louis  Ninth,  201,  215. 
Lull,  558. 
Luther,   265-279,  293,  313, 

321,  336,  342. 
Luther,    Magdalena,    274- 

279. 
Lutherans,  337,  442,  584- 

590,  796-803. 


M. 

MacGrady,  661. 
MacKail,  505-508. 
MacKendree,  622-631. 
MacMillan,  661. 
Makemie,  56.5-569. 
Manicheans,  101-106. 
Manning,  608-614. 
Marcionites,  18,  19. 
Marot,  369. 
Martin  of  Tours,  188. 
Martyn,  814-819. 
Martyr,  Peter,  302,  384. 
Mary,   Bloody,    385,    391, 

399. 
Mary,    Queen    of    Scots, 

416-418. 
Maturus,  50. 
Melancthon,  279-291,  297, 

301,  etc. 
Meleiians,  66. 
Methodists,  517-525. 
Methodist  Episcopal,  614- 

640. 
Methodist  Protestant,  773- 

778. 
Methodius,  181. 
Milne,  828-832. 
Moffatt,  813. 
Monica,  99-104. 
Montauists,  42. 
Moravians,  479,  518,   519, 

788-796. 
More,  Hannah,  528. 
Morrison,  819-837. 
Muhlenberg,  467,  584-590, 

597. 
Mystics,  223. 


INDEX. 


873 


N. 

Nestorians,  218. 

Nicene  Council,  57,  58,  60, 

65. 
Nicholas  of  Basel,  224. 
Nitschmann,  482. 
North  Africa,    Church  of, 

39-45,  52-56,  99-113. 


O. 

Oberlin,  492-500,  525. 
Oberlin  College,  726,  736, 

738. 
Oceanica,  849-856. 
Ochino,  384. 
CEcolanipadius,    315-320, 

328. 
Olaf,  180. 
Oldcastle,  246-249. 
Oleviau,  304,  305. 
Origen,  22-29,  97. 
0  rosins,  146. 
Otterbeiii,  599-607. 


Paleario,  371-379. 

Palestiue,  Church  of,  1-3, 
10-14. 

Pantaenus,  23. 

Paphnutiiis,  57-59. 

Papias,  16. 

Patrick,  114-116. 

Paul,  3. 

Paul  of  Autioch,  23. 

Paula,  96. 

Peck,  677-686. 

Peking  (see  China). 

Peregriims,  4. 

Perpetua,  52-56. 

Persia  Missions,  814-819. 

Peterson,  320-326. 

Philip  of  Hesse,  281,  287, 
313,  409. 

Pietists,  452,  462. 

Plutschau,  467. 

Polycarp,^  14-22,  37. 

Pothiuus,  50. 

Presbyterians,  415,  565- 
583,  724-728,  732,  749- 
773. 

Presbyterians,  Cumber- 
land, 661-668. 

Presbyterians,  United,  740- 
749,  778-783. 


Pressly,  778-783. 
Prudentius,  46-49. 


Quakers  (see  Friends). 

E. 

Rabaut,  486-492. 

Radbod,  71. 

Reformed,  Dutch,  639-647, 

803-813. 
Reformed,     French,     482- 

484. 
Reformed,    German,    442, 

594,  604. 
Reformed,  Scotch,  416,501- 

508,  741. 
Remy,  148-152. 
Renata,  338,  368-371. 
Reuchlin,  280. 
Ridley,  386,  388-397. 
Robinson,  John,  543. 
Rome,  Church  of,  38,  46- 

49. 
Roussel,  486-492. 

S. 

Saba,  74. 

Sachs,  291-296. 

Saint  Bartholomew,  360. 

Sales,  Francis  de,  361,  366. 

Sanctus,  50. 

Savonarola,  259-264. 

Scandinavia,     Church     of, 

176-180,    320-326,    431- 

439,  78.3-788. 
Schade,  455. 
Schlatter,  590-598. 
Schwartz,  796-803. 
Scotland  (see  Britain). 
Semi-Arians,  66. 
Servetus,  344,  355. 
Slavonians,  Church  of,  185, 

186,  250-259. 
Spangenberg,  791. 
Spener,  448-460,  475,  585. 
Spiridion,  59-62. 
Staupitz,  266,  279. 
Stockton,  773-778. 
Symeon,  1-3. 
Synods,    of    Arle,    Milan, 

Rimini,  etc.,  68. 
Syria,  Church  of,  3-10. 


Tauler,  222. 
Taurant,  346-352. 
Tennents,  572,  573. 
Tertullian,  39,  42. 
Tetzel,  266. 
Theodore,  135. 
Theodosius,  75,  79,91. 
Thomas  Christians,  218 
Trigolet,  346-351. 


U. 

Ulfilas,  70-76. 

United  Brethren,  603-607. 

Ursiuus,  300-308. 


Valentinians,  19. 
Vandals,  112. 
Vanderkemp,  803-813. 
Vernon,  346-351. 
Viret,  331,339. 


W. 

Waldensians,  221,  222. 
Waldo,  219,  221. 
Wales,  Church  of,  163. 
Wayland,  686-697. 
Wesley,  Charles,  517-523. 
Wesley,  John,  516-525,527, 

616. 
Wessel,  233-239. 
White,  647-657. 
Whitefield,  520,  521,  572. 
Wiclif,  239-246. 
Wilberforce,  528-533. 
William    of   Orange,  421- 

429. 
Williams,  John,  849-856. 
Williams,  Roger,  608-613. 
Winfrid  (see  Boniface). 
Wishart,  410-412. 
Witherspoon,  574-583. 
Wolmar,  353. 


Zeisberger,  788-796. 
Ziegenbalg,  467,  796,  797. 
Zinzendorf,  472-482,  525. 
Zwiugle,  308-315,  317,  341. 


Princeton 


Theological  seminary  Ljbrar^s 


Date  Due 

y^h  <4.  j.  4*: 

* 

1 

f) 

' 

